


A Very Torchwood Christmas

by GillespieGirl



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Christmas Dinner, Gen, Grumpy Ianto, Killer Robot Santa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 03:43:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5442125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GillespieGirl/pseuds/GillespieGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmas and even the Defenders of Earth need a normal day to prepar the family dinner, or they should. A shity day, lack of Christmas spirit and aliens taking over his family dinner, a dinner to which he didn't even want to go, could ruin the Christmas even for the most stoic Torchwood employee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Christmas Morning

He wasn't sure what he had dreamed of really, but he was certain it was better than the reality of alarms blaring almost into his ear. For one heart-stopping moment, Ianto thought that he was still in the Hub and that the Rift activity alarm had sounded. A moment late when his sluggish, sleep ridden brain started to catch up with the situation around, he realised that he was still sleeping in home with a warm body next to him. By the way of logic, the alarm that tried to give him a heart attack and a deaf ear was his clock alarm, proclaiming that it was time to get up for another day at work. Groaning to himself and not even bothering to open his eyes, Ianto swiped a hand on top of the bedside digital clock. He didn't estimate the right force and the clock slid off the table and crashed on the floor with and audibly loud noise. The body next to him stirred a bit and mumbled in protest.

Keeping his eyes closed, Ianto decided that he will let himself sleep just ten more minutes, it was Christmas after all. He hated working on Christmas. It seems that even shagging the boss, who seemed to sleep through the alarm even now, didn't mean he could stay home and be lazy for a day. Ianto supposed that it was still better than having to attend Christmas family meetings. He decided that he was already awake enough and there was no point in having ten minutes lie in. Kicking Jack's leg off he managed to entangle himself from bed sheets and human limbs alike. The captain still kept on sleeping undisturbed. Well lucky him, Ianto felt himself at the moment in that unhappy place where you were too awake to go back to a blissful sleep, but too asleep to be awake enough, the moment before his first cup of coffee.

Staggering into the bathroom to take a shower and get himself in his usual immaculate presentation for work. Only it was damn hard before he had even attempted to drink a coffee. The noise of his phone ringing came through the door while he was turning on the hot water in the shower.

"Ianto," Jack shouted through the closed door, "Someone called Rhiannon wants to speak to you and to know who I'm."

He hastily switched off the shower and ran back into the bedroom, dripping water all over the floor and cursing silently. He snatched the phone from Jack's had and started to make erratic gestures for the Captain to keep silent.

"Just my boss," Ianto answered the question that came from the other side of the phone. He knew his sister's curiosity wouldn't be satisfied by this answer but right now he didn't had the patience for her question and answer interrogation. He didn't have enough time in the shower to even begin to wake up and feel human again, and he was yet to have his first caffeine fix for the day. "No civil servant bosses don't take the liberty to sleep over at their workers, we had a Christmas party at the office and he was too drunk to go home so he came over to mine since I live closest to the office. Happy now?"

When he moved his head slightly to see what Jack was doing, Ianto could see the Captain giving him a smirk and trying to look amused. But something in his posture or eyes, Ianto wasn't completely sure, showed a spark of hurt after Ianto's refusal to acknowledge to his sister that there was something more between them than boss and employ. Rhiannon's next question took his attention away from Jack and the possible implications of what he had seen in his lover's gaze.

"No, Rhiannon, I can't come. I'm working today. Beside you know that I hate family Christmas dinners." Ianto sighed. They had this argument every year at this time, and every year he tried to explain to Rhiannon that he didn't want to see any of the relatives. Let alone have to be pleasant to them and eat and drink with them. The only time that he could actually get out of this was with Lisa and having the excuse that she will bring him to her family Christmas dinner to introduce him to them. That had shut Rhiannon up and probably aunt Aldyth, who never seem satisfied by certain members of the family and especially him. Aunt Aldyth was a scary old bat who still lived in her past and not noticing that her old aristocratic money had ran out after uncle Huw had died and left so many debts that even when she sold the house she barely managed to cover them. She had always thought that his mother could do better than his father. The fact that he looked so much like his mother, more gentle and delicate, not for a manual work, aunt Aldyth seemed to give so much hope in him, until he dropped college.

He had heard Rhiannon's arguments for so long- it was the same every year- now he could just stop listening and still come back to the conversation at the right time to give his usual answer.

"Yes, Rhi, I know but I work, just in case of emergency," Ianto answered with exasperation. "Yes, there are emergencies in the Tourist Office work, what if someone had lost their way around Cardiff and a family is waiting for them?" He went to the adjoining kitchenette and switched the coffee machine on to warm up the water. "Yes, Rhi in the night as well," he sighed tired of the argument already and looking hungrily at the coffee machine's light willing it to turn on faster to indicate that is ready to make that much needed coffee.

"Maybe it's just an excuse, you know I hate this things," he was ready to resolve to pleading by now. "Why do I need to come and be nice to people I don't even remember for the better part of the year?"

He could hear Mica over the phone asking her mother why she was angry and Rhiannon answer of, "Nothing sweetheart, your uncle's just bein' a Scrooge again."

"Bah Humbug," he muttered crossly mocking his sister.

Of course she won the argument, she always did in the end when proposing that if he didn't go to her house, she was going to organise the dinner at his flat. It was every year the same, and he really didn't know why he even bothered to argue, perhaps he hoped that this time it will be different. That was every time until she mentioned his flat, he wasn't sure if she ever was serious, but really couldn't take the chance that she was. Finally agreeing to go there if he finishes work on time, he hang up the phone with a heavy sigh and made his and Jack's coffees.

Two strong hands sneaked around his back and pulled him against the Captains chest.

"You know, if you look at your flat a person would never guess that is a Christmas time," Jack said softly to him. "Where's your decoration, and a Christmas tree?"

"What's the point of havin' a tree in doors anyway?" Ianto asked in turn. "Puttin' something for a couple of days and then havin' to hoover green tree needles from the carpet for months?"

"Well some decorations then," Jack persisted grinning. "Maybe we can put some decorations, curl up on the sofa or something. Or we can decorate the Hub, a Christmas at Torchwood. I bet Gwen had already put something up, she wouldn't miss, she looks like a Christmas person. Maybe I can come to your family dinner."

God, Jack sounded so enthusiastic and hopeful like a little kid. Ianto would never have though that about Jack as someone who would get so excited about something so mundane and domestic.

"No, you are not coming to my family dinner," Ianto said with a bit more force than needed and shoved the mug with coffee in Jack's hands. "What's the point in putting decorations when I'm hardly home and will have to take them off soon enough?"

He almost regretted seeing the kicked puppy look on Jack's face but was so worn out by Rhiannon's argument that it didn't hold. Taking his coffee, Ianto made his way towards the bedroom to get ready for work.

"Beside, don't you remember what happened last Christmas?" Ianto tossed over his shoulder to his lover. "You and John used my car to commit suicide. Very merry indeed."

"Why are you such a Grinch?" Jack asked annoyed, his Christmas spirit already starting to dissipate by Ianto's behaviour.

"I'm not a Grinch," Ianto said draining the last of his coffee and leaving the mug on the bedside. "I'm just practical and don't see the point in all that hassle, of rushing around putting colourful stuff that you hate during any other time. Or wastin' your time in wrapping stuff and sending cards for people you don't remember the better part of the year. I have enough paper work as it is. Beside you are way too chipper for someone who doesn't even origin in from a culture who celebrates Christmas."

With his part said Ianto entered the bathroom and started to brush his teeth, a moment later he was followed by slightly hurt looking Jack who joined him in brushing his teeth. Maybe it was the domesticity of the Christmas time or the fact that Jack was so eager to have a Christmas this year that made him paranoid, but he suddenly noticed things he hadn't before. Like the routine he and Jack had built to perfection managing to work around each other in the bathroom getting ready for work like a real couple. It scared him and for a few minutes Ianto stared in the mirror at their reflections.

"Jack…" he finally said after spitting the toothpaste out. "When did you move in?"

"What do you mean?" Asked Jack annoyed still feeling the burn of Ianto's mood.

"I mean you have your, toothbrush in my bathroom. We work around each other with practice. You don't even have a key from my flat, but everywhere I turn suddenly your stuff is around." Ianto finished and went to the cupboard pulling out Jack's clothes for the day, throwing them on the bed as an example.

"You are saying it as if it was something bad," Jack said frowning. "Not that I need a key to enter your flat but it would have been a nice though of you if you gave me one."

He gave Jack a withering glare, dried his face and threw the used tower on the floor before exiting the bathroom and starting to put up his suit of armour for the day. In defiance of everybody's cheery Christmas mood, he traded his usually bright red or purple shirts for a dull grey one and a black and grey striped three piece suit, with a grey and blue tie.

"If you have to go to the family dinner, I suppose we should stop by the shops so you can buy presents," Jack shouted from the bathroom before emerging and starting to dress up for work himself.

It was too domestic for Ianto, he really though that anymore and he wouldn't be able to stand it and will do or say something he would regret later.

"We are not shopping together Jack," Ianto said firmly and started to go through his possessions and clothes trying to find the car key's cursing.

He was sure that he had left them on the letter table near the door, but they weren't there right now. It was as if some evil Christmas gnome had moved them just to mock him and made him late for work because of his refusal to be swept by the Christmas farce. At least he wasn't going to be the only one late for work, if he was going to be late. The boss was going with him. For a moment he contemplated on walking to the Hub, but one look out the window at the heavy and cold rain was enough to discard that idea. And people where wondering about where his Christmas spirit was, as if there was anything Christmas-y out there, at least the weather could have been nicer and gave them a white Christmas, but no, it had to piss down on them. After ruining all his attempts in cleaning his flat last night, in the vain hope of finding his car keys he was ready to give up. There was the unwashed load in the wash machine which really was his last ditch attempt in finding them and not having to walk or try to find spare change for a bus ticket. Unfortunately, they weren't in his laundry either.

"Are you looking for these?" A fully dressed now Jack asked Ianto from the bedroom doorway dangling a set of keys on his index finger.

Scowling, Ianto snatched them from Jack's hand and put his shoes and coat exiting the apartment without waiting for Jack or even saying thanks.

At the end they ended up doing some shopping, Jack had worn him out with pleading, asking to see what that Christmas fever was and singing combined parts of Christmas Carols, which Ianto couldn't even began to guess where his lover knew from. Ianto would have been quite happy to just give them some money, or apology that he was working and had no time for shopping. What was he supposed to buy to all them anyway? Especially aunt Aldyth, Mica and David were easy, he was going to give them money anyway, and it seemed to work with them quite well. But that was the core of his relationship with his nephews, he gives them money, they don't really bother him when he is around. In the end he opted for the safety of buying everyone a thirty pounds gift card from Top Shop. That settled he sighed that maybe finally he could concentrate at going to work and doing his work. If he strikes lucky for once today, they will have so much rift activity and work and clean-up to do, that he wouldn't possibly leave Gwen and Jack doing it alone, so he will have the excuse not to go to the dinner. Or maybe he would have to stay late so Gwen could go home to Rhys and their in laws, she sure will enjoy it more than him. Or maybe if he was really, really lucky today the world will be ending.

Unfortunately dragging Jack out of the shopping centre was harder than he thought it would be. Somehow the man had never stricken his as a shopping lover, but right now he was like a kid in a toy store. Ianto noted the fascination with shiny objects for later. It was like watching a raven trying to snatch a shiny foil from a silvery surface. By the time they got back to the car, Ianto was sure that they were at least twenty minutes late for work. Not that anyone would notice of course, he was sure that Gwen won't be in until half past eleven and with hangover. Still he hated being late. Turning the key in the ignition, he had another nasty surprise for a day that seemed bent on giving him one after another. The car chocked, spluttered and then just died.

Jack looked at him tentatively anticipating the volcano that was about to explode the moment Ianto stopped staring at the dashboard. Taking a deep breath he tore his gaze from the dashboard and moved it to Jack, and then deliberately calm and composed moved to the front of the Peugeot to open the lid of the engine. Both men looked at the engine and had to admit that they hadn't a clue of what to do.

"I think is fucked," Jack gave his very helpful opinion.

"As if you know," Ianto almost cried. Taking out his phone he resigned to calling AA who told him that they will be there by half an hour. "So much for emergency," he muttered and put his collar up starting to walk with determination, Jack following him silently. So he would have to walk in the rain after all, if the day was going to go that way he was sure that he would break something, preferably heavy and expensive.


	2. Christmas at the Hub

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His hopes for the world ending were in vain, as it seemed that even the Weevils didn't want to show up on the surface during the foul weather.

Of course, simply walking back to the Hub would've been too easy. When he put the collar of his coat up and started to walk away, Jack shouted after him that they should wait for the AA. Ianto was really tempted to leave Jack there to wait and go to work as much on time as he was going to make it. The only problem was that he didn't trust Jack with his car ever since the incident last Christmas.

And that's how they ended up waiting for the emergency road services tow truck to come and pick Ianto's Peugeot up. They weren't kidding when they said half an hour - it seemed as if they were waiting until exactly the last second before arriving, just to be punctual. Usually, Ianto didn't have any problems with being punctual, but right now he was an hour late for work and he still had to walk more than twenty minutes in the rain. The bloody rain, that was soaking through to his bones, despite the heavy coat he had on him. It felt like everything inside him was chilled and he thought that he would never feel warm again. Jack, of course, had to be totally insufferable and chipper despite the cold. Well, it would be just Ianto's luck that being immortal meant that the Captain was unaffected by the extreme temperatures and felt perfectly all right, while Ianto himself was freezing his ass off. His suit was absolutely ruined now, and he cursed the time he spent in grooming himself for work. As if anyone would notice the trouble he had taken now that his clothes were dripping water and clinging to his figure, which was far from the perfect with all these take aways they were eating. Jack called them love handles, but Ianto knew that it was just fat accumulating around his waist and ass. Not really flattering, having his trousers clinging to them. His hair was plastered to his head and he was sure that the gel there was starting to form foam.

His key wasn't even in the pad of the Tourist Information door when a lady approached him. Ianto growled low into his throat - that was all he needed right now, an actual tourist asking for the Cardiff Museum or Cardiff Castle or some other stupid destination.

"Excuse me!" the lady shouted after him, while he tried to enter the office and slam the door before she reached him. Jack wasn't any help at all, chuckling and making his way down to the Hub to change into dry clothes, leaving Ianto to deal with the tourist while dripping all over the place and looking like a drowned animal.

Of course, it would be too much to ask that it would be a normal tourist – nope, it had to be a purple-skinned, six foot Melarian who didn't want to listen to Ianto's explanation that Earth was still only in the early twenty first century. The alien insisted on directions to the best tour route for Cardiff Castle and Flat Holm Island. As if Ianto could actually allow her to go to Flat Holm. The usual tourists were a big enough nightmare, as a rule, if they managed to catch the Information Centre open, demanding that he gave them all the information he had. And if the Centre wasn't open when they wanted it, they usually managed to come back later, just to give him hell for not doing his job. Of course none of them realised that he was off saving their asses so they could live another day to go and pester someone for information and pictures. But, as annoying as they were, they weren't the biggest problem. No, the biggest problem were aliens like the Melarian, demanding that they should be allowed to visit the city, despite the fact that Earth had not officially had her first alien contact yet. Their usual argument was that postponing their tour would mess with their holiday schedule… Well, weren't all the tourists the same, no matter where they came from? Sometimes the American and Japanese tourists were no less alien than the Melarian.

Fortunately for everyone in these situations, Ianto always managed to be perfectly polite, smiling at the tourists and being incredibly helpful, even while he mentally calculated what his chances of justifying shooting them were. And the best part, of course, is that the tourists never knew it.

After a few frustrating attempts at understanding each other and mistranslating, the purple creature agreed to meet with Jack and talk to him. Ianto sighed with relief at the prospect of going to dry himself off before doing anything else. He ushered the Melarian towards the Information Office door. But his relief was short lived because, before the creature had the time to duck inside, he could see a group of grannies approaching. If there were worse tourists than the aliens, it would have to be the grannies. They wasted as much of his time as the aliens sometimes, but at least it was his job to take care of the aliens. Of course, the grannies were the inevitable danger of having the Tourist Office as a cover. They were even worse than the American tourists or the English students.

Ianto had lost count how many of them tried to play matchmaker and give him their granddaughter's or niece's numbers - it depended on how old the granny was. He had collected enough phone numbers to create a Cardiff and Newport's Single Women Committee Yellow Pages. For some reason, probably because these days it was so unusual for a man of his age to dress in a suit while running a simple shop, they seemed to find him old-fashioned enough to want to marry him themselves, if it wasn't inappropriate to propose such a thing. Jack had saved him from a few by kissing him in front of them while they were looking for a place to write down the phone number. Of course, it wasn't out of jealousy - it was more for fun, and Ianto was immensely grateful. God only knew what they were doing here at Christmas here. They'd probably been saving their whole life, just so they could go and make the lives of tourist agents miserable, now that they had retired, Ianto's life included.

He stood in front of the Melarian to block it from the grannies' curious eyes.

"Sorry, we're closed," he hastily informed the group, and tried to push them back through sheer will power so he could close the door.

"No, I saw you just opening the door and talking to that tall woman. That poor lamb was going purple from the cold," one of the grannies insisted and tried to get around him to enter the shop, probably in an attempt to escape the rain, against which even her umbrella wasn't helping much. "Where did she go? Did you send the poor thing off as well?"

Ianto fought the urge to snort at the granny's conclusion that the woman had gone purple with cold. It was amazing what weird things the people of Cardiff were ready to put up with and ignore. They even made logical conclusions like this one just to explain away the weird, and not to have to think about it too much. Well, logical if you didn't pay attention to the fact that the Melarian was a bit too dark purple even for someone who is too cold, and it was a bit too tall for an average woman.

"She's here for a job interview," Ianto tried the first excuse that he could think of, still trying to fend off the horde of angry grannies. What joy his job was! Big scary aliens, bent on conquering the Earth, easy - give them to him any day! But this constant stream of tourists… When Tosh and Owen were still around it had been easier. Back then, he didn't have too much else to do but to keep the Hub going and the front covered. Now, however, with only the three of them, he thought that they should abandon the cover altogether. There was no time for this. He was starting to shiver in his wet clothes and cursed the grannies, who cared about the girl being cold, but didn't mind holding him up while he was wet and cold.

"No, you see it says here that you are open from 10am to 7pm," the granny with the colourful umbrella and even more colourful scarf and coat pointed at the opening hours listed on the door. She had a distinctive Scottish accent and, under her scarf, her hair was dyed bright red. "And it's only 10:30."

"Yes, and it's also Christmas Day, ma'am," Ianto said, as politely as he could, barely managing to hold his temper. He started to wonder if he could make up an excuse strong enough to convince Jack that the grannies were some kind of wicked witch aliens and shoot them. Probably not, but it was worth considering. By the time the granny had huffed with disapproval and had finished talking, he was so drenched that he figured he could stay out in the rain for the entire day now without getting any wetter. Finally the granny grunted at him in displeasure, flicked her bag over her shoulder and pivoted around on her heel, dragging her companions with her, muttering something rude, probably directed at Ianto's heritage.

The grannies out of the way, and the alien tourist safely down the Hub with Jack on the case, Ianto was ready to close the door and go dry himself and change his clothes. At that moment, Gwen entered, looking only a bit damp, probably from having to run from Rhys' car to the door. She looked warm, content and cheerful.

"Happy Christmas, Ianto," she shouted joyfully, even before she had managed to enter the Tourist Office.

When she came inside, however, she looked shocked at Ianto's condition and opened her mouth, probably wanting to ask him what had happened to him. He lifted a hand to stop her and cut her short before she had started talking.

"Don't ask, if you don't want me to shoot you!" Ianto warned her angrily. She must have seen it in his face, because she didn't ask. She probably thought that he wasn't serious and wouldn't really shoot her. But then again, Owen thought the same just before Ianto did shoot him.

"I'm going down to Jack then, no need to stay up here and sulk just because you got a bit wet," Gwen told him before the secret door opened to let her to the lift. "No need to be rude. It's not in your character anyway!" she chastised him. Ianto gave her the finger over his shoulder and hoped that he could get hold of the CCTV later to see her face. It was going to be worth his shitty day just to see her face at that moment. Unfortunately, with his back currently facing her, he'd just have to imagine it for the time being.

He wished that Owen was still alive and would piss Jack off, so that the Captain could send him up here as a punishment to mind the Tourist Office. On second thought, though, maybe it wasn't a good idea. Owen hated it, but that wasn't the problem - it wouldn't be so much fun if Owen didn't hate it. The problem was that every time Jack had sent Owen out here in the past, the next day the community centre was bombarded by customer complaint letters, calls and e-mails. It turned out that Owen didn't even try to help anyone but actually just told them to piss off while he was watching porn. One of the families bought the special edition of Welsh tour DVDs for their child, and they were shocked to discover the little girl watching porn. It was lucky for them that Jack could pull rank and the family didn't sue Owen. One can only imagine the horror Ianto experienced when they confiscated the DVD and he discovered that it was CCTV footage of him and Jack that someone had forgotten to delete.

His hopes for the world ending were in vain, as it seemed that even the Weevils didn't want to show up on the surface during the foul weather. Once he managed to make it inside the Hub and saw the enthusiastic decorations that Gwen had put up, and the grin that Jack had sprouted, Ianto was sure that he would prefer to brave the pissing rain outside. He was glad that Gwen wasn't stupid enough to put some Christmas Carols on, but she sang them while typing, and he was sure that if he heard "All I Want for Christmas is You" one more time he would end up spending the night in the Police station charged with assault.

In the end, he left for Rhiannon's house earlier, just to make sure that he wasn't going to go on a killing spree around the Torchwood Hub. Jack had already survived one of those at the beginning of the century. He didn't need to go through another one, just because Ianto was in a bad mood. Of course, now maybe he would have to go on a killing spree around his sister's house, but that was personal and was none of Jack's business.


	3. Robot Santa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Saw a vagabond king wear a styrofoam crown  
> Wondered if I might end up the same  
> There's a man out on the corner  
> Singing old songs about change  
> Everybody got their cross to bare, these days
> 
> 'These Days'- Bon Jovi

I was walking around, just a face in the crowd  
Trying to keep myself out of the rain

 

Being in a haste to flee the Hub meant he hadn't really thought about borrowing a car, or making sure he had money for a taxi. Despite the lack of public transport, the Bay was still buzzing with people mailing about, between the mostly closed shops and the occasional open café, even this late in the afternoon. The rain had stopped and Ianto decided that he would walk to Cardiff Central to take a bus to Cromwell Estate. He would usually take the train from Cardiff Bay if he was tired but the walk wasn't that long and the trains from Cardiff Bay weren't running anyway. Going down 'Lloyd George Avenue 'the groups of people started to get less frequent the more distance he got from the Bay. Ianto was almost sure that once he got near the Cardiff Central the buzz of crowd will be back, but for now he enjoyed the almost solitary feeling. The rain had stopped, but a wet snow was falling from the sky and trying unsuccessfully to cover the ground. It melted into water in the puddles before it even got the chance to touch the ground.

His thin soiled dress shoes probably weren't the best choice because his feet were beginning to feel as if they were getting frostbite inside the cold leather. Well he should be grateful that he could still feel them, he supposed. Maybe he should have taken the bus or a taxi after all because the thick coat didn't seem to do much to keep him warm when his feet were freezing. But he was so annoyed when he left the Hub, he need to clear his head before he got to Rhiannon's dinner knowing that there probably will be enough of provocation to his nerves, unless aunt Aldyth didn't come, very unlikely, unless she had finally snuffed it. And his cousin Miranda was going to be there, which since she had married, and recently had a baby will be new fuel for aunt Aldyth and her obsession to make him take the right turn in his life.

Miranda, who had married in London a couple of years ago, and pretended to be better than them all, as if she didn't know where she had come from. Not, that it was anything different than what he did really, and now he felt like such a hypocrite. After all, wasn't he the one who played a valley boy dressed up in expensive suits? Well, at least, he maybe have an apartment in the new reconstructed side of the docks, but he didn't insist on living in Essex and pretending that uncle Huw and aunt Aldyth's money and titles still existed. And maybe that's better. Ianto had more trouble imagining being addressed as Lord Jones, than understanding all the systems Tosh had installed into Mainframe.

The sun was well settled now and the late afternoon looked more like a night. The big avenue was brightly lit by halogen sights, hotels and street lamps, but some of the smaller roads were already starting to look dark and not a little suspicious. Looking at some of them and knowing what kind of creatures might be lurking in the dark there, not all of them Weevils, he decided against taking a short cut to the station. Suddenly the quietness of the place didn't feel that comfortable, he could hear the crunch of the occasional stone under his shoes loud and clear. Picking up his pace, Ianto hoped to make it to 'St Mary Street' before his already fried nerves had flared even further. Maybe from there he could take the bus to Cromwell Estate and not bother with the train after all.

Seriously this is ridiculous, he thought to himself. As if he had never been around dark streets in a lot worse situations than this. On the corner with Penarth road his eyes fell on a group of people dressed as Santas. Seriously who was standing around street corners dressed as Santa at a time only a few lonely souls were around? They didn't even sing Carlos or something, just stood there holding their trumpets, trumpets that couldn't look any more fake. Ianto was sure he had seen them in London once or twice and could never understand them. Shaking his head he ignored them and continued on his way. Admittedly they were very peculiar, but he'd seen stranger things, so by the time he reached the roundabout he had put the strange Santas out of his mind. There was another musician there, a much more real looking that the Santas, and although not strictly looking cheerful singing Christmas Carols, he played his saxophone with some real passion. The man looked sad and lonely, standing on the pavement on the roundabout in an evening where everyone was supposed to be around the family table in a nice, dry, and warm room. Ianto suddenly felt like a right idiot, complaining about where he had to go and whose company he had to tolerate, while this man here just stood in the rain and played this amazing jazz tune that could pull on the strings of someone's heart. Finishing the tune the man lowered his sax and smiled at Ianto.

"Merry Christmas," he said cheerfully despite all evidence that the Christmas for him wouldn't be any more merry than any other day.

Ianto could just nod numbly not knowing what to say. Was returning a cheerful 'Merry Christmas' appropriate? Or was his silence now even worse. At the end he opted for the easier way, the one that he always used when he didn't know what to say to people like this or to his nephews. He took out his walled and threw some crisp banknotes in the saxophone case. It felt wholly inadequate, but staying around chatting with the man or inviting him for a quick supper in a near café wasn't something Ianto would do. That's why he thought that the whole Christmas idea was stupid, it just made the lonely people feel even more alone, and the one that suddenly for a day feel charitable think better of themselves. As if one day of being charitable, would make the fact that didn't give a shit for the suffering through the rest of the year better.

He tried not to look as if he was picking up his pace, as if he was hurrying, trying to escape the company of that man. He could have deceived the man, or any other pedestrian around, but he couldn't lie to his consciousness, and trying to escape made him feel even worse for himself. Was he becoming too insensitive to anything that didn't threated the peoples life, because Ianto was sure that there was a time he would have returned the greeting. Now though, if the man wasn't bleeding or wasn't being attacked by something, he just ran away from them.

"No one should be alone at Christmas." The man's voice came behind him, soft but strong enough to be carried towards him by the wind.

"I'm not, I'm just going to meet with my sister," Ianto answered and then regretted it. Was it too much of a gloating that he wouldn't be alone? He didn't want to face this part of his consciousness, so he visibly picked up his pace, not bothering to hide it from the man anymore. The man was finally left far enough behind that Ianto couldn't see him as anything but a dark figure in the background, but the words followed him even in his escape.

No one should be alone at Christmas, and he had just left Jack in the Hub. Did Jack even have a family to go to at Christmas? Or did he spend all this Christmases on his own in the silent Hub with only Myfanwy for company. He remembered, Jack asking him in the morning about going to the family dinner with Ianto, surely if he had a family he wouldn't ask about this, and he had brushed him off so carelessly. God, he was a terrible person. Maybe Jack was used to it by now; surely it wasn't the first or even the worst time.

Ianto was more than glad to lose sight of the street musician, not because the man was bad, but because he played on his consciousness too much. He was glad despite there being another group of the peculiar Santas, or maybe they were moving. He almost ran right on top of one of them, who didn't even bother to apologise or at least acknowledge Ianto's apology.

Gwen was almost sure that for once the Rift will be considerate enough to give Torchwood their needed holiday. Because if Ianto could take half of the day off and go to his sister, surely Gwen could take it as well and go home early to have the Christmas dinner with Rhys, as she had promised. Of course it wasn't to be, and since she was in the Hub at the time the alarm blared, she was the one to have to accompany Jack, Gwen was sure he would flat out refuse to call Ianto. There was a time, Gwen knew, time when she would have ran alongside Jack without sparing Rhys a second though, no matter the name of the holiday. Times and dynamics in the team had changed so much since that kind of days. Then she loved Jack, now she was sure that her loyalties in love lay with Rhys. Of course she still loved Jack, but now she knows that she wasn't in love with Jack.

Jack, maybe it was good that she was here after all, the poor man was alone and no one should have to be today. Gwen wondered if she ought to invite him at their dinner with Rhys, but it would just be awkward and Jack would never accept anyway. She cursed Ianto in all the languages that she had picked up working with aliens, and not only because he was the one who should be here with Jack working, but because he was the one who should have invited Jack to a family dinner. The stupid grump, and that was another thing that had changed in her mind, Gwen used to think that Jack was the one to keep their relationship unspecified and at arm's length. Guess the team becoming smaller, closer and knowing each other better put some things in perspective, Gwen though. Not that it was time for epiphanies right now, when Jack was looking worried and was talking about Ianto and some kind of pilot fishes. What had Ianto to do with pilot fishes, Gwen wasn't sure, but it came to show her that she ought to pay more attention because she had not heard a sensible word out of what Jack had said. She could strip pieces out of Ianto tomorrow when he comes back to work for leaving Jack alone. What did Ianto have to fear anyway, she could understand Jack's reluctance to keep a relationship, but Ianto…

Jack was gesturing a little frustrated now so Gwen shook herself mentally and tried to focus on what Jack was saying.

"Whatever is following these pilot fish is going to be something big, and the three of us are not enough," Jack was saying, and if he had explained what these pilot fish were and why she hadn't seen them she had missed it and didn't dare to ask. "So, this time the moment you find them shoot first and then ask questions."

He looked at her probably expecting her to argue, and she would have, fiercely, once upon a time. Now thought she knew better, with only the three of them, they had not enough force to allow bleeding hearts. And that thought stopped her for a moment at her tracks and knocked the metaphorical wind out of her, she had just accepted Jack's command to shoot a living thing without so much as a token protest. When had she changed so much, wasn't it her who was employed to change Torchwood and make them more human, was it going the other way around? Torchwood was changing her, and she wasn't sure if it hadn't started before they lost Tosh and Owen, because it was easy to lie to herself that this change had started only as a reaction to this. But Gwen never liked to lie to herself, and she wasn't going to start now. She knew that she was losing the humanity that Jack was prising her so much about. Instead of her making Torchwood more human and less broken, it was Torchwood which was breaking her piece, by little piece, and shaping her into the person everyone else working there had become. Maybe that was the reason for Ianto's and Jack's hesitation to look into new employees. They didn't want to break another person, because Torchwood was inevitably going to break them.

She stood up and checked her gun to make sure that it was loaded and would not jam in the wrong moment.

"Where are they?" she asked feeling ready. All thoughts and doubts pushed at the back of her mind to be examined later, after the job was done.

"On Penarth road, but they are moving towards the junction between Penarth and St Mary's Road. They're either surveying, or have a moving target which they are following. "


	4. Family Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we find out why having a Christmas dinner at the Jones' isn't a good idea.

" Before you judge me take a look at you

Didn't you find something better to do?

Point the finger, slow to understand

Arrogance and ignorance, go hand in hand

It's not who you are, it's who you know

Others lives are the basis of your own

Burn your bridges and build them back with wealth

Judge not lest ye be judged yourself"

Metallica- 'Holier than thou'

Jack was right, the signal was moving and Gwen had a bit of a trouble following it. Not that the signal was moving too fast, but she had never been as confident as Tosh with technologies, and although the PDA wasn't all that complicated, she was still trying to figure it all properly. It made her feel frustrated sometimes, with all this charts, readings and knobs on that small device. She was getting better at using them, but she knew that she would never be able to start using it to its full capacity. Ianto was much better at it, but Gwen thought that Jack ought to look to hire someone who understood technologies better than them. Besides Ianto was losing his concentration trying to fill in for Tosh and sometimes Owen as well, well apart from the autopsies, he couldn't really stomach most of them, but the point was that they all were stretched thin.

Jack swivelled the SUV around a sharp turn, throwing Gwen against the door of the car. The PDA slipped from her fingers and she cursed grabbing hastily to keep it from dropping at her feet.

"Jack, be careful, this is sensitive equipment," she protested.

"Gwen, since when did you start sounding like Tosh or Ianto?"

"Since I learned that you never pay attention when I protest about keeping people alive," she retorted crossly. "If you don't slow down I won't be able to warn you in time where to turn, or see where they have moved. The car is shaking so badly, the screen is unreadable."

"Oh, come on, the chocks and bumpers of this beauty can take this kind of driving with minimum effort and without shaking the car," Jack protested. "It is more likely to start chock and shake if I don't use the whole capacity of the horse power."

Gwen huffed, "Do you have to sound like a poor imitation of Jeremy Clarkson?"

It was scary enough when Rhys was trying to sound like this, but when her boss was doing it…It was more than worrying considering that he didn't watch TV, at least not before he started to go over to Ianto's flat.

Clearing her throat, Gwen got back to business and looked at the hand held device closely.

"They are heading up the North Road, just past Bute Park," Gwen said. "Where are they going, Jack? You seem to know who they are."

Jack nodded gloomily, and accelerated the speed ignoring Gwen's protests about speed limits and populated areas. The car swivelled to the right for a moment, clipping a rubbish bin and sending it clattering away on the street, spilling bags with litter. The noise was loud and clear in the quiet evening, and Gwen was almost sure that they had given some poor pensioner a heart attack. Jack didn't seem to notice any of that concentrated on keeping the vehicle upright. One of the tyres bumped over a bin bag popping it open and making the car bump at the left with a slight jump. A stray fox cried out frightened and scurried away.

"If I'm right they are heading towards the Cromwell Estate."

"And what's in the Cromwell Estate?" Gwen asked impatiently. Boy was it annoying when Jack started his game of half answers and guesses.

But this time Jack didn't look as if he was in the mood for games, "Ianto's family home."

Five minutes into the house and Ianto already wished he had never gone there. Maybe other people enjoyed being met and greeted by the whole family, hugs and barrage of questions, but Ianto would have taken a toss around with a Weevil before it at any time. After such a manner of greetings he started to wonder, would it be too wrong if, when asked where his Christmas spirit was, he pointed towards the liquor cabinet? He sighed, looked around, and as every Christmas so far memorised every available exit in the house for fast retreat.

Ianto knew that he should never presume something, because the moment he thought that his night could not get much worse, his cousin Miranda, trust a little blue bundle in his arms with the exclamation of what a great uncle he could be, and…

"He is lovely, isn't he?" She beamed at him proudly introducing him to her new baby.

Ianto held it gingerly in his arms wondering what to do with it. It was amazing how women could become so attached to one small thing like this, something that hardly weighted more than 10 pounds. It squirmed in his arms and Ianto was afraid that he will drop it, or maybe its head was going to drop out, heavens knew it was flopping around too much, as if its neck couldn't hold the head.

Ianto give his cousin a tin smile, "Yes, yes, he is…It's he, isn't it?"

And at that moment Ianto realised that he had committed the greatest crime of them all, he had called a new mother's baby it, and could not recognise the gender from the first moment without help. Miranda's features contorted in fears anger that could rival every alien bend on conquering Earth that Ianto had met.

"It…" She hissed, suddenly looking like an avenging angel more than like his mild mannered cousin. It was amazing what transformation the motherhood created into women. Ianto marvelled for a moment how such a simple matter like mistaken gender could transform a nice woman into a hissing and spitting monster. After all it wasn't like the babies looked too different when they were under three months, and some mothers weren't much helpful with dressing them distinctively. When confronted with bald baby in yellow clothes, how was a man supposed to know it was a girl? The strange thing was that other women seemed to just know, even when they weren't the mother. Maybe they had some instincts, because babies turned not only the mother into harpies but also every woman in the perimeter. First it turned them into cooing hens, that was before the apparently mortal danger of an offensive male, and then into shrieking harpies when an apparent offense was delivered.

Rhiannon's voice brought him back out of his contemplation.

"Of course it's a boy," she said shaking her head. "Oh, well, men. What do they know about children? Come on Miranda, have a little break and let Ianto take care of Nick, come with me in the kitchen."

Miranda looked as if the last thing she wanted to do was to leave baby Nick with Ianto, but she followed Rhiannon through the door.

Giving the scowling baby another sour look, Ianto thanked all deities that might exist that he and Jack had no danger of becoming parents. Finally he could see the perks of having a male lover. Baby Nick didn't look very happy and probably felt as comfortable in Ianto's arms, as Ianto felt having him there because the baby give a small keening sound that suspiciously sounded like a preparation for a full blown while. Ianto almost panicked imagining the hoard of angry women if he got the baby crying. Cringing with displeasure he stared to lightly bounce the baby around hoping to quieten Nick, he however had other plans and after giving a loud gurgle hurled out all the milk he had eaten previously, after which he finally broke into loud inconsolable sobs.

Ianto whished for a moment that he could be as childish as Nick, and start whiling as well after he looked down at himself and his previously immaculate suit. He smelled of something putrid, but the worst part was that his four hundred pounds waist coat was covered in crude baby milk. As if called by some supper female power, which enabled them to sense an infant in distress, half of the women in the house congregated around him and baby Nick.

"What have you done to him?" Miranda asked as if Ianto was some kind of criminal because he had made a baby cry. She took the baby from Ianto, and suddenly transformed form avenging angel into gurgling, cooing mother hen. "Here, here, Nikki what had the bad uncle done to you? Shh…"

Ianto looked sadly down at his previously great suit and prepared for a mean verbal battle with Miranda when he was suddenly pushed further away from the baby by Rhiannon.

"Seriously, men," Rhiannon rambled passing by him and reaching to pat the baby, "can't even keep a baby quiet for five minutes. Don't you know something as simple, as not to bounce a baby too much after it has been fed?"

"What?"

Not his most intelligent reaction, even Ianto had to admit to it, but in that situation was all he could think of asking. It wasn't like anyone had informed him when the baby had been fed before pushing it in his hands.

"Mate, leave the girls to deal with the baby and lets go have a couple of beers before the dinner is ready. Like real blokes." Johnny's voice pulled him from his gloomy, baby thoughts and he nodded, smiling gratefully. It was telling really, about his desire to be involved with children, the fact that he was happy to associate and have drinks with his brother in law.

The robot Santas, or according to Jack, pilot fishes kept on evading them and keeping a few miles ahead of them. Gwen was getting frustrated not knowing all the information on what was coming their way. Jack had said something big, but he couldn't elaborate more because apparently he didn't know himself. She asked for any similarities between the previous big fishes that had followed the robot Santas in the past, but he had informed her that both times they had showed up, the big thread was different.

It really irked her not knowing, because she had discovered that the worst enemy was the enemy you don't know. It didn't help her annoyance that they were heading towards Ianto's house. She was determined that whoever they were, and whatever they wanted with Ianto, she wasn't going to let them hurt a single hair of Ianto's head.

"Jack, can't you go faster?" she asked urgently detecting another energy burst and suspecting that their marks had beamed themselves away again. And while she and Jack had to go by the only way a 21st century human could in the centre of the city; by car, their marks could just teleport closer to Ianto's house on a whim.

"I thought you just complained that I was going too fast…" Jack commented sparing a quick curious look at her.

Gwen huffed exasperated. She was sure that most of the times Jack would be actually aware of exactly what was happening, and what she meant, but was doing it on purpose, to annoy her and amuse him. Well he may be amused, but Gwen was not.

"That was before the aliens we are pursuing started to teleport themselves."

Jack nodded turning serious again, but did not increase the speed of the car.

"We are already going as fast, as is safely possible."

Ianto was surprised to discover that he enjoyed his few minutes chat with Johnny and Andy, Miranda's husband. He hasn't noticed until now, but he had missed simply talking about football and rugby with someone, instead of aliens, espionage and cover up stories. It was very refreshing and he could feel himself loosening up. Something that people kept on telling him to do, but he never really did without a considerable amount of alcohol in his blood.

Of course then his sister had to call them for dinner and his enjoyable chat was cut short to face the tedious table conversation of every family meeting so far. Rhiannon, Miranda and Grandma Brenda were rushing around, fussing over the food order on the table, even little Mica was helping. Only aunt Aldyth was sitting regally at her place on the table, watching critically over the serving.

The old bat, Ianto was sure that these thoughts weren't his only. At least couple of more people there were thinking the same.

"Mum, did you by a tree?" David asked. The women's concentration was momentarily broken by the question, but Rhiannon just shrugged and carried on ordering dishes. "I though you said that dad can't afford to spent money for silly things like Christmas trees."

"No, I haven't I thought your uncle Ianto brought it, since he arrived last," Rhiannon straightened up and looked critically over the table one last time before people started taking their places on it. She finally looked at the three. "My God, it's huge."

Ianto shook his head, "When did you think I managed to get the tree here? After you smothered me with kisses, or after Miranda pushed Nick in my hands?"

"Johnny?" Rhiannon turned towards her husband, planting her hands on her hips in an uncanny resemblance of Ianto when he was questioning Jack.

"Don't look at me, luv. I didn't," Johnny hurried to placate his wife.

"Oh, never mind it's pretty," she finally concluded and sat smiling inviting everyone to start their dinner.

The food was distributed quickly from platters to plates and for a moment there was a content hush over the table while everyone enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner; and just then…

"Mummy, David just threw his boogie in my mush," Mica whined.

"I did not!" David protested with indignity. "She just don't wanna eat the mash."

Ianto sighed and rolled his eyes in unison with Johnny. More kids.

"David?" Rhiannon managed to make the question sound as warning.

"Mum, he is lying."

"I am not!"

"You know what…Lets play a game of who can say the biggest lie," Miranda's husband, Andy, suddenly suggested brightly. "It is supposed to belittle the lie, it's a psychological trick." Andy explained quietly to Ianto and Rhiannon who were closest to him.

"Alright, who's gonna start?" Rhiannon asked looking around the table.

"I'm a toilet," David announced proudly.

"Yeah, that's very clever David," Rhiannon said shaking her head.

Ianto supposed it would be fun way to finally unload some of this secrets to his family, without the need to retcon them later. No need to retcon them if they would simply think he was telling them the most outrageous lies he could think of. The few glasses he had consumed didn't hurt his resolve either, although he wondered if it was wise to drink so much when there was only the three of them in the team now and Torchwood duties could call him at any moment.

"Suppose 's my turn now," he started before he could think better of it. "I work in a secret organisation, residing in a super-secret sci-fi base, and watching over a portal in time and space. I can use big guns, we catch aliens and my boss is an immortal man from the future."

Rhiannon snorted, Johnny laughed and Andy whistled.

"Yeah, yeah, right…" Johnny commented between bouts of laugher.

"Ianto, has always been a good liar," Rhiannon commented. "But I think he messed up here it was too much."

"I like uncle Ianto," Mica announced with conviction. She even nodded decidedly.

"That's very sweet, sweetheart," Johnny said trying to diffuse the situation. "Now let's go back to the game."

"But that was part of the game," Mica protested.

"Mica…" Rhiannon warned gaping at her.

Ianto chocked on his forkful of mash and took a big gulp of his wine, whishing he could turn to something stronger, like whiskey or vodka. The only person who managed to react on time, amongst all the gaping faces, and save the situation once again, surprisingly was Johnny.

"Anyone in for seconds?" he asked sweetly and passing them the platters. Rhiannon threw him a grateful look while Ianto took the platter from her hands, and shoved it almost forcefully at Andy who was fruitlessly trying to protest that he did not want seconds.

An awkward silence fell over the dinner table, the usual affair when the dysfunctional Jones' family decided to play by the festive rules and gathered together. Until aunt Aldyth broke it once again.

"Let the little gem be, Rhiannon, it is not her fault. Of course she would be thinking like this about her uncle Ianto, she hardly knows him," Aldyth did not miss to bite at someone on the family table, and even more so her favourite victim of late, Ianto. "He has never been good with kids," she said with disdain. "All he does is give them twenty pounds to keep quiet and away from him. I would bet this is what he has got them for Christmas as well. Because, he does not know what they like."

"Thirty…" Ianto muttered almost into his glass.

"What?" Aldyth asked confused.

"Thirty pounds. Not twenty."

"Oh, aren't you so generous," Rhiannon muttered in her own turn.

Ianto contemplated his wine glass for a moment, then eyed the tumbler on the other side of the table, and made up his mind with a heavy sigh. If he was going to survive this night, he would surely need something stronger. He stood up going to the drawer with glasses and took himself one, then approached the other side of the table and poured generous amount of Glenglivent in his glass. The whiskey was expensive, so it was more likely brought there by Andy and Miranda, it would surely explain the scornful look on Andy's face when he filled his glass.

"You know how it is, genetics and all," Ianto said to Aldyth, while making his way back to his place. "Is a good thing you never had kids really, or they would either be serial killers or canonised for saints."

Another shocked and awkward silence followed Ianto's words. Rhiannon coughed, probably telling something to Johnny and not wanting anyone else to hear it. Ianto looked around himself, to meet the shocked faces of his relatives. Clearly no one expected a comment like this by the mild mannered and always polite Ianto. So maybe he really did have a bit too much to drink then. It was always the same with him and alcohol. Ianto and alcohol just did not mix; this was only a set up for a great embarrassment or disaster.

"Maybe it is better this way," Aldyth sniffled. "Now that Haw had lost everything on his wretched horses' betting and I have to even sell the house."

"Oh, come off it, aunt Aldyth," said Ianto. Maybe combining the beer, which he had with Johnny with the wine, and now the scotch wasn't too clever an idea after all. "The man had the patience of a bloody saint. It's a miracle that he managed to survive married to you for fifty years. Who can begrudge him finding a bit of a joy in his life in betting. He should be given medal for bravery."

Ianto's last comment caused a wave of murmurs in different volume and ferocity around the table. Some, like Aldyth's or Miranda's were murmurs of shock and disagreement. Others like Johnny's and Brenda's were accompanied of little, almost imperceptible nods of agreement.

Why my life does feels like some twisted Shakespearian comedy? Wondered Ianto as he watched the steadily rising uproar in the room. People around the table were hurling accusations at each other, and the different side of the family. Ianto was sure that his mum would appreciate the humour, or the tragedy in it. She loved Shakespeare; his dad probably didn't even knew his name. And that was one of many ammunitions aunt Aldyth used against him. She kept on insisting that Ianto's mum would have been a great theatrical actress if she didn't drop it off to marry a chav. Now she was throwing accusations at Rhiannon for marring Johnny. Ianto wasn't really paying attention to her blathering, he knew the drill anyway.

"Don't you give me the evil eye Brenda! Your son drove our lovely girl mad and sent her into this hospital." Aldyth concluded levering a scalding glare at Ianto's grandmother.

"My son looked after your lovely girl long after any other man would have," Brenda said rising from her chair and ready for a battle. "He was so devoted to her, he took ill."

Johnny, Andy and Rhiannon tried to placate the two women while Ianto tried to block the mandatory family battle from his mind. He really didn't need this. In the beginning of the night he wondered if it was good decision to drink; now he just hoped that there was enough alcohol in the house to keep him going through the night. Miranda chose that moment to walk away from the table and feed baby Nick, and in Ianto's opinion to take a little break.

"Well, Ianto, aren't ya going to help?" Rhiannon asked him annoyed and pulled him back into the situation.

Ianto just shook his head and lifted his glass in a salute.

"At least Rhiannon got married," he said. This stopped the battle for a moment. Both sides were surprised that Ianto had volunteered to comment on this and risk it turning into a debate of him single situation.

It didn't turn into a debate, because it didn't go any further. Just when Brenda and Aldyth were readying themselves to assault Ianto with private questions on his sex live, Mica pointed towards the Christmas tree, and David pointed outside.

"Mummy, the tree is all sparky," shouted Mica with excitement.

"Mum, there are Santas in the back garden," shouted David in the same time.

Rhiannon just waved them off probably used to deal with children's fantasies without batting an eyelid; however, Ianto looked at where his nephews were pointing.

"Rhiannon," Ianto hissed. "I think David is right. And I have seen these Santas before."

"Don't be ridiculous," Rhiannon snorted. "If you wanted to break the fight you could have just helped."

By this point Johnny and Andy were staring at the back yard and the three as well. So Rhiannon huffed and turned around, just to have her mouth gaping at the side.

"What are they?" she asked.

"Aliens." A voice behind them answered. In the excitement no one had heard the door crash open.

Ianto whirled around and stalked to Jack annoyed for having his boss just blunder in his sister's house, on their family dinner as if it was just another Torchwood crime scene.

"What are you doing here, Jack?" Ianto demanded to know.

"Saving your family from the aliens that are stalking you. They are just the messengers, the big one is yet to come," Jack answered not even slightly bothered by the incredulous looks that the rest of the occupants of the house were throwing him.

"Ianto?" Rhiannon asked.

"Oh, that's my boss, Jack Harnkess, and my colleague Gwen Cooper."

"Hello," Gwen greeted and waved a hand.

"We catch aliens," Ianto informed and waved Jack into silence before he had protested on the information. "And if he says they are here we need to get the kids upstairs."

There were a couple of protest of, "You can't be serious", and, "I always knew that he was going to end up in psychiatric hospital just like his mother", from various people in the room.

"Shut up and just do as I say!" Jack commanded and perhaps the authoritative tone of his voice did the job more than the words. "Good, now, everyone, go slowly back and get upstairs."

People started moving although, why upstairs would be any safer than down here Ianto wasn't sure. He wondered where Miranda was, and if he should send Gwen to look for her, when he saw her entering the room with now sleeping baby Nick in her arms. She looked around the slowly backing away from the windows people in confusion, but after a few hurried and hushed words with Andy started to move as well freeing one hand to hold it tightly clasped in her husband's.

"But seriously, aliens?" Johnny said. He hit lightly David upside the head when the boy started to grin exited and was going to comment. David was looking at his uncle now in a different way. Ianto had never seen his nephew look at him with awe before. And he watched Jack with something akin to adoration, as every eight year old boy would at a super hero.

"Why not?" Andy asked. "Why deny they exist now after the Earth was moved from her place, and all these paper pots in the sky. Or the killing Christmas star in London a couple of years ago, people standing on the roof, the Titanic over Buckingham Palace? Do you think it really was toxins in the water?"

"Your Doctor needs to cover his steps better," Ianto hissed at Jack. "What's the point of all the cover up jobs I do if he leaves alien evidence all over the place?"

Mica had stopped moving, but no one had paid attention for a moment, she was still gazing at the mesmerising colours that swirled inside the decorative balls of the Christmas tree. She moved again, but instead of following everyone she made a few hesitant steps towards the tree. The balls started spinning and some of them looked as if they were hanging in the air. She reached a hand, and then finally Gwen turned around and noticed the little girl standing near the tree and reaching out to touch the now hovering balls.

"Don't touch the tree," Gwen shouted and ran over to Mica.

Her words got Rhiannon's attention and she turned around to see what was happening. She stared to run back towards her daughter," Mica get away from the tree," she shouted but it was too late. Jack was reaching for Rhiannon's arm to hold her there, because he was sure that Gwen was going to take care of Mica, but she couldn't cope with Rhiannon as well. One of the balls exploded shattering glass and porcelain over the table. Gwen took Mica in her arms and rolled away under the first cover she could find. Unfortunately it was the very table, they rolled under it just as another ball exploded over heads, and yet another one shattered the table under which Gwen and Mica had taken a refugee.

The whole scene was unrolling in front of Ianto's eyes like a mute movie in a slow motion. The loud noise of the explosions had temporary deafened him, and the fear that clenched in his guts, a fear for his family, made his head lightened as if everything was coming to him through some kind of a barrier. He could see the table being broken, but he could not hear the noise of wood splintering, or his and Rhiannon's cries of Gwen's and Mica's names. He knew he was moving towards Rhiannon the moment he saw one of the Santas levelling his saxophone at the window, but he didn't feel the motions that his body was going through. His only objective was to get to his sister before the Santa had fired at her. The loud noises of weapons going off were the first indication of his hearing returning. The windows shattered in small pieces of glass raining down around the diners. Ianto couldn't reach his sister on time to drag her under a cover; he jumped in front of her hoping that she would get away before the next shot.


	5. The Invasion Begins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Ok, as I'm very careless with my betas, I have lost them all, so no still not beta-ed. I've been tired while finishing it, and tried to give it a basic once over edit, but please feel free to point out anything blaringly obvious that you find and think needs fixing.

Steve walks warily down the street,  
with the brim pulled way down low  
Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet,  
machine guns ready to go  
Are you ready, Are you ready for this  
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat  
Out of the doorway the bullets rip  
To the sound of the beat

Another one bites the dust  
Another one bites the dust  
And another one gone, and another one gone

Another One Bites the Dust by Queen

Ianto had thought he was too late when he jumped in front of Rhiannon, but he managed to make it just before the Santa's weapon went off. He could see the flash of the ray and hear the loud bang. If he was feeling fanciful he could imagine that he could hear Jack's voice calling desperately his name. He wasn't someone to indulge too much into fanciful, romantic dreams, however, so he was sure that Jack had shouted something, probably his name, with a warning rather than desperation.

Ianto closed his eyes against the brightness of the weapon's blaze and expected to feel something when all ended. At least he hoped that he would feel something, he really didn't want to just fade away, not even noticing that he had died.

A deep breath.

Then another.

A few seconds passed. Nothing! Then he heard the shattering of splintered wood and something sharp glazing his cheek painfully. He could hear the rapid fire from the pair of guns from the others. Two from the Torchwood team, it was synchronised, like some kind of deadly well-rehearsed melody. Then everything fell so quiet, it was unreal.

A heartbeat!

People around him started shouting and Rhiannon was shaking him trying to get him out of what she had probably thought of as a shock.

He opened his eyes.

Gwen had thrown the biggest chunk that was left of the table when the first ray of the gun had shattered it and the wood had taken the burn of what Ianto was sure was heading his way. A piece of it had broken off and glazed Ianto's cheek, but compared to what could have happened the sting of the wound of his cheek was only a little inconvenience.

"What the hell is that?" Rhiannon shouted next to him, breaking his shock. In what felt like hours, but it was only mere seconds, until he could react, Jack and Gwen had recovered from their surprise and had taken down the drone Santas. He was still standing there, shaken and enduring his sister giving him the third degree about lying for the content on his work, and bringing guns in her house, while everything whent still and quiet.

"Is Mica ok?" Ianto heard Rhiannon and Johnny ask at the same time, but before he could react, he was swept in a crashing hug by Jack.

"For a moment there, I thought that was it. I thought, I'd lost you," Jack said and kissed him. It wasn't a romantic, beautiful kiss where everything else stops. It wasn't the kind of a kiss that inspires nice romantic music, or rose petals to fall around. This kiss happened only in the movies and fairy tales. No, the kiss was wet, messy and sloppy, but Ianto didn't really mind. Not until he realised where they were standing.

Ianto felt himself being pulled out of Jack's arms and a moment after that Rhiannon had slapped the Captain.

"Oi, that's my brother you are snoggin', mate," she said angrily with hands planted on her hips. It remained Ianto of himself when he was arguing with Jack.

It probably did remain Jack of the same because his only reaction was to grin at Rhiannon and then promptly snog her too. This time it was Johnny who pulled Jack away from his sister and punched him squarely in the jaw.

"An' that's my wife you are snoggin'" Johnny muttered. Ianto was grateful for the small miracle that Jack didn't take up on snogging Johnny as well. However bad the shooting and destruction of his sister's house were, Ianto was sure that the horror of seeing Jack snogging Johnny would have been the one thing to break him.

The little respite they had amid the chaos that had descended around them was cut off by his aunt Aldyth and Grandma Brenda's shouting one over the other.

"Who is this, man?"

"What happened?"

Now, when Ianto was finally pulled out of his shock and thoughts he notices what was really going on around him. Rhiannon's house looked as if it was in the middle of a war zone with its furniture upturned, shattered glass and wood pieces scattered around the dining room, but the worst of all was the panicked shouting of his relatives and the crying and screaming of children. David seemed to have lost all his bravado after the reality of the gun shots and other weapons, but still looked as if he was holding much better than some of the adults around, certainly better than Grandma Brenda. David was looking around himself with wide open eyes and awed disbelieve, although quite a lot scared, still he didn't make a sound. Maybe too scared to even move? Rhiannon was crying silently in relieve, hugging Mica to herself and hoarding Johnny and David out of the room.

Baby Nick was screaming his lungs out in Andy's arms, Andy was grinning from ear to ear nodding and most likely contemplating the merits, pro and against saying, "aliens, I knew it!" to Miranda. Possibly the only thing stopping him from doing so was his wife's absence from the room.

"What we need is a nice cup of tea to calm us down," aunt Aldyth said suddenly over the others' cries.

"A cup of tea... The world is going to shit and you want a cup of tea?" Johnny sounded annoyed with the woman.

"Ah, you people…" Jack said grinning at her with enthusiasm. "Aren't you afraid? It's aliens…" He lifted a questioning eyebrow.

"Of course I am scared, Captain," Aldyth answered while taking a cup and proceeding to make herself some tea. "But I am also British! If I have to go down, I will do it with grace! There is no style in running around screaming. Then again what do you Americans know about style and grace?"

Ianto frowned at her but didn't try to stand up for his captain, not that he was an American anyway, besides if he felt offended, Ianto was sure that Jack could take care of himself. He helped Aldyth make the tea and distribute it around while Gwen tried to calm down the guests in the house, and Jack was visibly plotting defensive strategies.

"We still need to move. As I said these robots were only the pilot fish before the big, bad guys come," Jack said looking around the room for clues of what to use to secure the room. It the end they had camped in the kitchen, no need to get upstairs; there was no guarantee that it would be any safer than either room on the ground floor.

"So we are to expect the sharks now?" Gwen knew there was no need to ask, but she did anyway just to clarify.

"Or dinosaurs," Ianto suggested with a shrug.

"Not helping Ianto," Rhiannon grumbled.

"Both could be right," Jack answered not bothered to reassure or calm down the rest of the residents in the house. He was now completely occupied with the defences and his team, and so disregarded all other mundane concerns of the civilians around him. "The problem here is what is coming?"

He turned around and looked pointedly at Gwen who was sitting next to Brenda, holding her hand and trying to reassure her that everything will be alright, thus leaving her PDA on the kitchen counter unattended.

"Anything on the Rift readings?" Jack asked her pointedly. She looked sheepish for a moment and then picked the PDA up checking it out.

"Nothing new on the Rift detector," Gwen said. "Whatever it was either came earlier with another rift activity or just landed here. So, either way it's been around for a few days at least because there's nothing on the proximity alarm as well, not for today."

"So it's been here, but we didn't see it," Jack said to himself. "Ianto, get a lap top, this house is bound to have one, and ring it up to the mainframe. See if you can pull up the last few rift activities and proximity alarms. Any sight there was more than one energy signature that we missed, dig deep as you can."

Ianto nodded and carefully went around the ground floor of the house in search of a lap top. The one he found wasn't ideal, it was a bit old, a bit beaten up-and was that sticky toffee fingers on the keyboard- but it was a working computer and was going to do the job. He kept it firmly clasped to his chest and carefully picked his way over broken and upturned furniture. Now that everyone was in the kitchen and the dining room was quiet it looked even more eerily like a war zone, or a zombie apocalypse. Amongst the upturned furniture, pieces of broken wood and glass, Ianto could see the remands of Santa robots looking like grotesque dead soldiers. Shuddering, Ianto turned around and tried to keep his mind on the fact that they were just robots, and everyone that mattered was still alive and physically at least unharmed. He stumbled over something large and solid on his way, a glass rolled over producing a loud noise in the quiet room. Ianto froze in his steps for a moment holding his breath. He did not dare to even exhale as if expecting something to jump out and attack him from the shadows of the ruined room.

Nothing happened, which encouraged Ianto to breathe deeply and start to move again. He made it back to the kitchen where he put the laptop down on the counter and immediately started to connect it to the Hub's mainframe.

"What kind of a civil servants do what you lot are doing right now?" Rhiannon asked. She sounded scared but tried to cover it by showing an annoyed front.

"I could tell you, but I have to kill you after that," Jack said grinning.

Rhiannon gaped at him shocked, and then turned on Ianto.

"He's joking, right?" she asked.

Ianto just nodded distractedly not averting his attention from his task on the computer long enough to answer his sister. It wasn't too hard to get the lap top connected to the Hub, in fact knowing the right passwords and using the right pathways through satellites he could connect to it from everywhere. Of course there were obstacles, Tosh wouldn't allow just anyone to access the information without a firewall, but as long as he knew exactly what he was doing he could get the connection from virtually anywhere on virtually any computer. The computer hissed, crackled, and then a few sparks flew out of it and stung Ianto's hand. He yelped in surprised shock and recoiled from the laptop, sucking on his fingers and glaring at it as if it had verbally offended him. The screen become blank and then the lap top switched off as if plugged out.

"What, happened?" Jack asked watching the computer screen with annoyance. "Can you still get anything out of it?"

"Oi, this thing just nearly electrocuted my brother, and you are more concerned if he can get you what you want," Rhiannon shouted angrily at him. "Do you care so much for everyone under your command?"

"The world could be in danger, and he is alive," Jack stated without bothering to answer more clearly.

Ianto approached the lap top cautiously as if expecting it to bite him the moment he got up close, but it stayed dead. He poked it carefully, but nothing happened, sighing he turned to Jack and Gwen.

"It's dead, caput, burnt out," he announced.

Jack looked back at Rhiannon.

"Do you have any other computers?"

"What so you can destroy another one and risk killing my brother?" she asked.

"For the record, your brother was the one who destroyed your lap top not me."

Rhiannon sighed, "Up in David's room."

"Where is Miranda?" asked Andy as if just now getting out of his stupor and not even noticing the topic of the conversation.

Aldyth looked around confused; Ianto and Jack just shrugged keeping their eyes on Ianto's PDA.

"Oh, no, she is all alone out there, with an alien we are still to find out," Gwen said, just at the moment in which Miranda came back in the kitchen.

She looked around the room noticing the worried faces of her relatives and one of Ianto's colleagues and took Nick from Andy's arms.

"I'm sorry I needed the loo," she said.

Everything was so mad around her Miranda thought, it was surreal. She had never, ever imagined that the world would go to shit in front of her eyes. And even then, if she ever thought that something disastrous would happen, she had always imagined it to be a natural disaster, as draught, great flooding or something like this. Even in her wildest dreams Miranda had never imagined it would be aliens. Or that her husband would be almost trilled to meet one, or that her cousin will be one of the men in black spooky people. It never occurred to her that her life could be anything but completely ordinary. She just knew that she shouldn't have come back to Wales. She had a good excuse now with Nick just being born at that. But as her uncle Huw liked to say when he lost at his horse bets, 'no need to cry over spilled milk', only it was easier said than done when you are confronted with robots shooting Star Wars like weapons and objects flying around.

Still despite all the hell around her she needed the toiled. So while everyone else was panicking and retreating towards the kitchen, she pushed baby Nick in her husband's arms and darted upstairs to the toilet. She hoped that she would make it before whatever this captain guy was expecting to come and destroy Earth. Dying in the toilet didn't sound all that dignified, although, Elvis had…And now she was just giving it to the panic and becoming very silly.

She did make it back out of the toilet and almost to the door of Mica's room when something ambushed her. It stank of something rank and she was almost glad that she couldn't see the face. If the smell was that awful, she didn't want to see the looks. She'd never seen an alien, if that was an alien, but she didn't really want to see one either. Miranda preferred to stay oblivious. She wanted to scream, tried it even, but before she could make a sound other than whimper, she was gagged, tied up and then thrown unceremoniously back into the bathroom.

"You needed the toilet?" asked Jack incredulously. "We are on the hunt of, and hide out from, an unknown and possibly very dangerous alien. And you needed the toilet?"

Miranda didn't seem too bothered by having being addresses by the Captain who was clearly trying to look intimidating. She only shrugged and passes him without a second glance. Reaching her husband she sat near him and took a sip from the mug near him didn't pick up the baby however. It was a bit strange but with all the stress of the day no one paid her any heed. The baby started squirming in Andy's arms and soon become more agitated and whimpering.

Andy looked from the distraught baby in his arms to his shocked and unresponsive wife. Usually she would be picking up and shushing the baby right after the first whimper had left Nikki's lips. And gods help everyone that might have caused his distress or was in her way when she tried to comfort him. Right now, however, she was looking at their son as if he was some ugly slimy creature.

"I think he is hungry love," Andy said trying to get his wife interested into her baby. "When was the last time you fed him? Before dinner?"

Miranda looked at him blankly, as if she didn't know what she was supposed to do with a baby. Her movements were stiff and slow, as if she was unused to move in this strength of gravity, or as if she was in severe shock. Andy had heard of mothers rejecting their babies in the first months after birth, but Miranda had never, until now, shown any sights of anything like this happening. On the contrary, she was very loving, and at times overly protective mother. He held baby Nick to her, but Miranda just recoiled away.

"What is that thing?" she asked him. It shocked him. He knew she was in shock but this was beyond anything he could have expected. No shock could amount to reaction like this, no shock could excuse a mother ignoring, rejecting or not recognising her hungry and crying baby.

"What do you mean love?" Andy asked.

"It means she isn't who you think she is."

It was the brash American captain who had answered him instead of his wife. Andy didn't even know who this man is, and usually wouldn't even trust someone like this, but after all that was happening, he looked like the man who knew what to do when everyone else was panicking. So naturally they followed him, and Andy followed everyone else. Like nice little pack of sheep.

"What do you mean not my wife?" he asked anyway, just in case. "That's my wife, I know her."

"And I'm telling you. This isn't your life," the captain insisted.

"And I should listen to you why?" Andy asked, "Because you are some all-important, government idiot?"

"Nope, you should listen to him because he says so." Ianto said. When everyone turned to look at him, he just shrugged before adding, "He is never going to explain even to us."

So what? They were expecting him to just hand his wife over to the man and not ask questions? Andy looked at him frowning, he was a simple man, give him a wife, a kid and a pizza in front of the TV, and he was settled and happy. And right now this cocky stranger was threatening his wife, he might have been enthusiastic to learn about aliens, but he didn't like it mixed up with his family. Right now that man was waving a gun at his wife's head.

"Back off," Andy stepped between Miranda and the gun. "We are not your enemy here, what is going to happen if we all start waving guns at each other?"

"She is not your wife!" Jack growled at him. "This thing is a shape shifter."

"You have no prove," Andy shouted at Jack, then turned to Ianto in desperation. "Ianto, she is your cousin, a family…You can't just let him threat her, he has no prove, just some insane ideas."

Ianto looked at Andy with condolences apparent on his face, he looked that he didn't want to be the one telling Andy the very, very bad news but had no choice. Andy backed away a little but still stood between Miranda and Jack Harkness, he wasn't going to get his word on face value, just because Harkness claimed to know about all this stuff and Ianto appeared to work for him.

"I'm sorry Andy, but Jack is right. She isn't Miranda." Ianto lifted his hand to stop another protest from Andy. "You saw how Miranda reacted when I made Nick cry. Do you really think that in whatever shock she is she will be that indifferent to him?"

Andy opened his mouth wanting to agree with Ianto, but closed it again without making a sound. If he agrees it would mean that his wife was somewhere in danger, or even death and he wouldn't just accept that and move on.

"So that's it? We agree that my wife is dead and something has her body, and let this big flashing hero shoot her?" Andy spat. "Well I will not! She has a family, her baby needs her! So you just get that thing out of her and bring my wife back!"

Andy made a few steps towards pass Ianto and towards Jack and Miranda, no the alien…yeah, whatever they say he wasn't giving up on his wife. And Ianto be damned, he never liked anyone in the family too much anyway. When was the last time Ianto had visited any of them if it wasn't Christmas?

"I'm really sorry but it doesn't work like this," Jack said. Andy had to give it to the guy, he wasn't a coward, and he had the nerve to look Andy square in the eyes while telling him that he was going to shoot his wife. "This isn't your wife's body, it's a shape shifter."

"For all we know, Miranda is already dead," Ianto supplied in support of his boss.

Andy turned back to Ianto sharply and pointed angrily at him.

"Don't you dare, don't you dare… Ianto Jones. You don't get to decide her fate!"

Gwen had abandoned the PDA and approached Andy placing a sympathetic hand on his back. She always preferred the human contact before the cold devices anyway, and it wasn't like the PDA was shedding any more light into the situation. Ianto could take it and work with it later. She rubbed Andy's back and whispered some soft nonsense assurances. When he finally registered her there he let himself fall into a nearby chair.

"It's ok," Gwen said softly. "Let Jack do his job. Just because this thing is impersonating Miranda, it doesn't mean that she is dead. You will be surprised how many species need the real person to be alive in order to keep the appearance intact. "

"Really?" Andy asked hopefully.

"Really," Gwen smiled. "I'm sure we will find her soon enough. I promise you, I will not give up until I find her alive and well."

"You can't really promise something like this," Andy protested. "What if you don't?"

"Yes, I can! And I will!"

He nodded exhausted, just glad that someone felt confident and was ready to take care of him in all this madness.

"Now, I'm sure your wife will be ready for any situation when you are travelling and will have more options to feed the baby than her breast," Gwen prompted Andy to turn his attention back to Nick and his cries of hunger. "What about bottled milk? Did she keep in bottles some of her breast milk?"

Andy looked at Gwen stunned and then suddenly started into a motion prompted by having a new purpose. He went to the fridge and took out a baby bottle with milk.

"She always pumps some for the road because she hates breastfeeding on the go," Andy said and held the bottle triumphantly. He picked up Nick and set on feeding him.

"See? Here you go then, Nick's all sorted," Gwen smiled softly.

From that moment things happened very fast and most people in the room couldn't really be sure which event preceded the other; they could have very well been happening at the same time. Still the human brain had to process them as a sequence. Gwen was still smiling at Andy and playing with Nick's fingers when the shape shifter abandoned the image of Miranda and turned into its natural form. Ianto tied to step between it and Gwen, but it was faster and took Gwen by her neck, squeezing the air out of her throat. Jack almost squeezed the trigger, but refrained himself because he couldn't get a clear shot. He was in danger of hitting either Gwen or Ianto. The rest of the room's occupants, the ones who weren't experienced in aliens and life or death situations started to scream in panic. Andy shouted for Gwen, Rhiannon- Ianto's name, and the rest just for the sake of it.

"Let go of her! Don't you dare to hurt her!" Ianto's deep voice was heard above everyone else. His face a mask of fury and his eyes locked into Gwen's with the silent promise that he will do anything to get her out of it alive. "What do you want?"

Gwen was trying to say something but could only make spluttering noises and fight for breath, trying to talk was not beneficial so she had to give up on it and to try to get as much oxygen into her deprived lungs as she could through the squeezed windpipe in her neck. She could feel her head becoming fuzzy and her thoughts muddled. She spluttered again and chocked in vain trying to gulp an inexistent breath. Gwen face was starting to become blue and a few blood vessels in her eyes had popped colouring the white parts in red. Ianto brushed his hands through his hair in desperation and looked from Gwen in the shape shifter's grip to Jack. His eyes were pleading with Jack to do something before Gwen had suffocated. He hated it when they had to kill a living creature, but right now he couldn't care less for the shape shifter. He wished he had his weapon with him, because if Jack didn't shoot soon he would.

The creature didn't answer Ianto's question, no one knew if it was because it couldn't talk, because it didn't speak English, or just because it didn't want to answer. It didn't release Gwen from its grip. There was a shot and the shape shifter fell down dragging Gwen with it. No one seemed able to react in any way, not even to panic after the shock of the gunshot. But it looked that everyone was already too numb by the continuous shocks of destruction, gunshots, running and aliens. Everyone looked at Jack's direction staring at his still smocking gun with wide open eyes.

"Gwen, you alright?" Jack asked.

Gwen coughed, moaned and tried to get up weakly but her limbs seemed to have gone very heavy and sluggish. Ianto lifted the ugly creature off her and helped her up pulling her in his arms. He held her there secure until she could breathe almost normally again and steady herself on her feet. He knew that Gwen hated to appear as the damsel in distress, so the moment she seemed to regain some of her strength, Ianto released her.

"She seems ok." He helped her to reach the kitchen counter and prepared her tea to help her throat recover from the damage. He was sure that she would be feeling it all sore and achy.

"So that's it then?" Rhiannon asked finally voicing everyone's thoughts. "All sorted? A bit easy isn't it? I though they will want some world domination or somethin'"

"Yeah, that's exactly it," Jack told her very serious. "It was too easy, I'm afraid this shape shifter was only a decoy."

"What so that wasn't the worse?"

"Nope," Ianto interjected in the conversation. "Because that would've been too easy."


	6. Chapter 6

Jack wished it would really have been that easy. A bit of a run in with some robot Santas and some shape shifter, and then back home for tea. There was the matter with the ruined living room, of course that one was a shame, but Torchwood was going to take care of the maintenance expenses. Next working day a builder's company was going to show at Davies's font door and tell them they had been send by the council to repair the damage caused by the wild animal. They would have been none the wiser and would have had a newly refurbished ground floor. Of course that would have been too easy for Torchwood, not life threatening at all and not world ending. The problem was that he couldn't even began to guess what the big threat would be, and when would it come?

Would it be just threat to the immediate vicinity lives, or one to be an apocalypse, end of the world as we know it? That was exactly what scared Jack the most, the unknown enemy, the one you can't see coming or don't know how to defeat.

"Jack…" Gwen tried to get her boss' attention but it didn't seem to work. He appeared to be so deep into his thoughts that he couldn't hear her calling.

"Jack…" Gwen tried again, but got no better result than the first time. She took his shoulder and shook it. "Jack…"

Jack finally snapped out of it and turned towards her. He looked her in the eyes and frowned.

"Is everyone alright?" he asked.

"Yes, well apart of the shape shifter and Miranda obviously," Ianto said.

"Well, yes, obviously," Jack agreed with Ianto while still managed to sound sardonic when answering to him.

"What was that thing, Jack?" asked Gwen. "If it wanted world domination it just gave up way too fast."

"No, Gwen, it didn't want world domination." Jack went to the body on the kitchen floor and pocked it lightly with the toe end of his boot. "It's from a race of shape shifter assassins and it was probably sent here as a decoy to get our attention occupied, while whatever is planning world domination put their plan to work. These assassins would do any job for the right amount of money. Only this one probably didn't realise that it won't be enjoying the money."

"So I have the dead body of an alien assassin on my kitchen floor?" Rhiannon shrieked. She would have liked to sound calm and reasonable asking this question but she couldn't. It was too much, it was utterly bonkers, and her brother and his friends were responsible for it. At least everyone else was too stunned to even speak and the room was finally reasonably quiet.

"Rhiannon, please, not now," Ianto said.

Rhiannon sat back affronted feeling a bit hurt, it wasn't usual for her to just accept when someone tell her to stay quiet without protest, but then again it wasn't every day that you are chased around your house by aliens. So she sat and let the experts do their work. And wasn't that just so strange thinking of her baby brother as one of the secret agent experts.

Slowly people around the room had started to come out of the silent shock and started to move around the room in a bit of a daze. Aunt Aldyth was still complaining about the chaos clearly not grasping the full severity of the situation. Grandma Brenda was trying to pour some more tea with hands shaking, spilling it around the cups and in small puddles on the kitchen counter, electing further grumblings from Aldyth. Johnny was trying to calm down Rhiannon and keep Mica quiet, while David was trying to get one more glimpse of the alien corps feeling something between the curiosity of a child and being totally terrified.

On the other side of the kitchen, despite her sore throat, Gwen was trying to calm Andy down and help him feed and change Nick. It was strangely calm, people drinking their tea, changing a nappy proceeding with their lives as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Jack couldn't help but think that it seemed too much like the calm before the storm.

"We need to find Miranda," Andy said snapping out of his haze. "You said that she could still be alive, we need to find her."

"We will, I promise you we will, but we also need to find out what is coming here," Gwen assured him. "Ianto, can you see anything on the PDA?"

Ianto shook his head lifting up the PDA for Gwen to see. Jack approached him behind and to Ianto's discomfort stood right behind him almost plastered to his back. Ianto kept quiet not wanting to draw any more attention to their position that it already might have, the only sight for his discomfort of being so close around people was the slight stiffening of his back. Jack took the PDA from him and studied it carefully, checked a few more settings, then tossed it back on the counter with disappointment.

"Rhiannon," Jack turned to her, "you said that you have another computer in one of the kids' rooms?"

"Yeah, in David's room."

"Well then, let's go upstairs and have a look at it," Jack commanded. Not waiting any response he turned sharply around with a swish of coat tails. Ianto's hand stopped him. He got a hold of Jack's arm and pulled on it insistently.

"Jack, I don't think using the computer and accessing Mainframe is a very good idea!" Ianto persisted holding on to Jack's arm.

"Ianto what are you talking about?" Jack asked. "We already discussed this. We need the information on mainframe."

"No, Jack, trust me on this," Ianto said. Then he looked as if he was thinking this over. He looked lost for a moment after that, then shook his head and released Jack's arm. "I'm sorry, you are right we need it."

Jack lifted an eyebrow at Ianto's sudden change of mind but couldn't give him more attention that this because at that moment they could hear thumps on the bathroom door and muffled cries.

"Miranda…" both Gwen and Andy shouted and started running up the stairs followed by Jack and Ianto. Everyone else trailed behind.

Gwen stood by the bathroom door holding a hand up to stop Andy from opening the door and running in without knowing what they might find in there. He was desperate to make sure that his wife was ok, and she understood this, but it could be another trap, something else to divert them from the real chase. Very slowly and cautiously Gwen approached the door and put a hand on the handle. Her other hand was on the waistband of her jeans, ready to grab her gun at any moment if needed. She looked over at Jack and Ianto and received nods indicating that they were ready to cover her back. She turned the handle very slowly. Everyone near the door could hear the urgency of the muffled cries increase when the door handle started moving. Gwen tried to stop herself from simply shoving the door open and running to help the distraught woman, because it might very well not have been a distraught woman. In the end she couldn't stand the slow progression and pushed the door, still peaking cautiously, she could see a young woman being tied clumsily, and gagged with a towel, on the floor near the toilet with her bond feet lifted in preparation to kick the door again. Andy pushed by past Gwen before anyone could react and stop him with a cry of, "Miranda!"

Abandoning all caution Gwen helped him to untie Miranda and lift her up from the floor. However, Rhiannon was more cautious of handing her Nick still holding him in her hands and trying to find any sight that this was not Nick's mother.

"Andy," Miranda shrieked the moment her mouth was free of the hand towel. "It was bloody awful! That creature…what was it? It was so ugly, oh God, it was from hell…"

"No, it wasn't," Jack said tersely.

"It's you!" Miranda exclaimed pointing a still shaking, accusing finger at Jack. "You show up and a perfectly normal and enjoyable dinner turns into a horror story."

"Miranda, calm down, it's not his fault, and it's not like a horror movie. And frankly, the dinner was far from enjoyable, unless you have been eating on another table," Ianto muttered, and ushered everyone out of the bathroom and down the short corridor towards the children's rooms. He pushed the door to David's room opened and turned a deaf ear to the protests of the owner of the room. Ianto grabbed the lap top and opened it to start it up. A moment later a hand pushed the lead of the laptop back down, slamming it closed.

"In the hallway you said that it wasn't a good idea to use the mainframe. Why was that?" Jack Harkness asked.

"No, reason sir? Might've been just a bit nervous," Ianto answered. He tried to appear calm and push the lead up again to open the lap top.

"Oh, no, you are not giving me that," Jack said. He kept his hand on top of the computer effectively preventing Ianto from opening it until he give him a satisfying answer in order to be allowed to continue with doing his work.

"Jack, I think this can wait until later, we need to find what is happening and the real threat to Earth," Gwen said placidly, putting her hand on Jack's shoulder.

"Oh, I think we already found the threat," Jack said darkly, then turned his cold gaze to Ianto. "Don't we Ianto?"

Ianto didn't answer immediately. He just stood there calmly waiting for Jack to lift his hand from the computer so he could keep working. He didn't smirk or comment, but his posture and face were so calm almost as if he was saying, 'took you long enough, sir.'

"Indeed sir," Ianto said calmly. "Now if you excuse me?"

Everyone around the room was staring at Jack and Ianto as if expecting a bomb to go off at any moment. The tension was almost palpable in the air. Gwen could almost taste it on her tongue, as if it was something bitter and acid at the same time. Rhiannon was gaping at Jack, her mouth working open and then closing again. She clearly wanted to say something to Jack for accusing her brother, but either could not find the words, or didn't know if she should say something. After all they all thought that the shape shifter was Miranda as well.

"Jack, what do you mean," Gwen asked after a few tension ridden moments. "What has Ianto to do with it?"

"Oh, Gwen I don't think that's Ianto anymore," Jack said still keeping his dark tone of voice and the clod look on his face.


	7. Chapter 7

They think our heads are in their hands

But violent use brings violent plans

Keep him tied, it makes him well

He's getting better, can't you tell?

No more can they keep us in

Listen, damn it, we will win

They see it right, they see it well

But they think this saves us from our hell

Metallica- 'Welcome Home (sanatorium)'

'I don't think that's Ianto anymore,' the words echoed around the small room filling everyone with dread and anger. A child's room was way too small to hold everyone comfortably. Jack wasn't surprised to see that it was blue. It seemed that in the last two centuries that he lived here on Earth, every boy had to be surrounded by blue. Not surprising on one wall was hanging a poster of some rugby team; the other was shared between Spiderman and some footballer from a Cardiff team. He was obviously quite the Welsh boy, through and through, just like his uncle.

Suddenly the chaos erupted again all over the place. People shouted in confusion, questioning each other, or demanded answers from Jack, but no one dared look at Ianto. It redirected Jack's attention from Ianto and the computer for only a moment but it was long enough for Ianto to open it again and start it. Rhiannon was livid, shouting, demanding and pulling at Jack.

"What do you mean that's not my brother anymore?" Rhiannon demanded to know. "Look at him, that's Ianto over there."

"No, I'm sorry but he is not," Jack said quietly, feeling as if the world under had dropped off under his legs. He felt sick, cold sweat marring in beads his forehead and his neck. He couldn't lose Ianto now, not when it was supposed to be only a nice family dinner.

"So what is it another shape shifter?" Gwen asked." Where is the real Ianto?"

She looked at Jack expectantly with large pleading eyes. Please let it be a shape shifter. Let Ianto be alright. That was the mantra going around her head. She needed Jack to reassure her that she wasn't going to lose another friend, one of her best friends.

"No, Gwen," Jack told her gently. "This isn't a shape shifter. That's Ianto's body, but that's not Ianto right now."

"How do you know that, Jack? You can't know that."

It was just a stubborn denial and she knew it, she, they had seen too much to know that Jack wouldn't just mistake something like this. Still she refused to believe it without any prove, and she could see it in the face of everyone else around her, that they did too. Even if all of them were in denial. Gwen was good in denial. It wasn't the first time for her, denial sometimes made her unable to accept the situation until she fixed it when other people felt defeated. She wasn't going to just stand and accept it now.

But she couldn't keep on contemplating this because Ianto had used their momentary lapse in attention and had started whatever it, the creature that he was now, was telling him to do. Jack took his gun out once again, this time pointing it right at Ianto's forehead.

"Jack?" Gwen gasped in shock. "What are you doing?"

Rhiannon and Johnny's voices could be heard over the general cacophony of angry shouts of, both Ianto's and Jack's names, demanding to know what was going on. Rhiannon looked as if she was barely holding herself not to pounce on Jack. The revolver in his hand, and the hold Johnny had on her sleeve, were the only things keeping her in the place.

"I'm trying to get some answers," Jack told Gwen coldly. "Get away from the computer! NOW!"

Ianto calmly turned around with a small, oh so familiar for his expression, smile and stood up holding his arms up in a gesture of surrender.

"It is going to be too late anyway, even if you shoot," he said calmly, as if shooting him didn't hold too much a value. "I have already sent and set up the data."

"We'll see about that," Jack spat. "Who are you?"

"The Wire."

This small two words answer elicited even more shouts, protests and demands. It was impossible by that moment to distinguish who was shouting what.

"What is that?" Jack snarled.

"What is happening to Ianto?" Gwen asked at the same time.

Ianto just stood there and smiled calmly at them. He stood up from the chair and closed the lid of the laptop. Noting in his posture or mannerism showed that he was at all concerned with Jack's webley pointing at his head or with the general chaos around them. His smile was more of a smirk, and it was making Jack's face twitch with frustration. Gwen could see the tale tales of his frustration in the tight lines of Jack's face. It unnerved her because in moments like this she knew that Jack was unpredictable and could shoot Ianto if he so much as moved wrongly. Even if it was just to wipe the smirk off what was once his lover's face.

Gwen didn't want to hurt Ianto, she only wanted to help him and protect him. But as her old Sergeant in the police force used to say when they really needed to use some unconventional methods, desperate time called for desperate measures. So she took the matter in her hands. She crept behind Ianto and knocked him out cold.

"I am really, really sorry," she said lowering Ianto to the ground gently. Jack quirked a questioning eyebrow, but then just nodded at her mouthing a 'thank you', and started tying Ianto to one of the chairs.

That was the moment when Rhiannon broke away from Johnny's grip and pushed Gwen away to reach Jack and Ianto. She tried to pull Jack away from her brother, all the while shouting incomprehensible in between desperate demands of information and pleading with Jack to release her brother or help him.

"For goodness sake woman, pull yourself together!" aunt Aldyth's voice suddenly broke through the chaos. "This is a disgrace! Keep some decorum! I knew that your mother should not have married in this barbaric Welsh place."

If Gwen had ever wondered where Ianto had his uptight manner from despite his valley boy upbringing, she had her answer now after meeting this lady. She left the two men in the family, Johnny and Andy, to take care of the ladies and hopefully manage to calm them down, and went to help Jack with tying up Ianto. She didn't like it, but she still trusted Jack's judgment and she knew Ianto enough to see the difference for herself now.

"How did you know it wasn't him?" She whispered to Jack.

"Did you notice how rude he was to Miranda in the bathroom?" Jack asked her back. "He is sarcastic sometimes, but he is never openly and consciously rude. I think that whatever this Wire is it looked in his mind and tried to copy him."

"It mistook his sarcasm for rudeness," Gwen stated nodding. It was formed as a statement but she looked at Jack questioningly for confirmation, wanting to see if she got it right.

Jack nodded.

"But it could have been just the stress," Gwen suggested.

"Yes, but there is more. When we were working on the scanner in the kitchen he allowed me to practically press into him in front of all the family," Jack said. "Does that sound as Ianto?"

Gwen just shook her head. And then she thought there was this moment in the corridor, before they had ascended the stairs, when Ianto had tried to stop Jack and warn him that using the computer wasn't really a good idea. She didn't think it was too important moment at the time, but now she thought that they should have paid more attention to it. It could have been the last moment the real Ianto had to warn them.

"But if it was since then, why help us with the shape- shifter then?" Gwen asked. "Why save me?"

"Maybe it needed us to trust him." Jack shrugged.

"Or Ianto isn't completely gone," Gwen suggested and looked at Jack daring him to contradict her.

He didn't, not this time. He just nodded and went to take some water from the bathroom to wake up Ianto. They would have to wait for Ianto to tell them what was going on and see how it will go from there. Jack splashed the water on Ianto's head and he woke up spluttering. He pulled on his bonds trying to get out of the desk chair.

"Jack, for God's sake," Gwen protested.

"We need answers, Gwen." Jack turned to Ianto. "Don't struggle, is not going to help!"

Ianto snarled something inaudible but did heed Jack's comment and stopped struggling for the moment. He gave all of the room's occupants a reproachful gaze and a disdainful smile. He clearly thought they were not up to his standards. The look he gave Gwen, however was slightly pleading.

"What is the Wire?" Jack started his merciless questions without leaving him any time to recover.

Ianto laughed again, "Even if I tell you what I am human you will not understand."

"Try me," Jack hissed. "I'm not your mere human."

Before Ianto, no not Ianto, the Wire, could answer, Gwen butted in unable to just stand around quiet any longer.

"What do you want?" She pleaded. "Why did you take over Ianto?"

It gave her an appraising look and smiled almost fondly at her, " Aren't you so sweet, always needing to understand, to care."

It tugged one last time and then seemed to get resigned to its fate and sagged in the restraints making as comfortable as possible into the small chair. It wasn't much to offer really, Ianto was a full grown, six feet odd man, and not with of very light build either. But it just had to do, there was no choice really.

"I'm the Wire!" It announced proudly in Ianto's voice. "I'm a single entity existing on an electrical wave lent. But not anymore! Now I'm going to spread through this planet's networks. Mobile phones, internet connections… This planet is full with them, it's perfect."

"But… why? Why did you take Ianto?" Gwen insisted to know.

Ianto opened his mouth to answer but Rhiannon interjected this time.

"Please don't use my brother's voice!"

"Is that better?" The question came from Ianto's mouth but it sounded as a standard pure recording of a train announcement through an electronic speaker. Rhiannon nodded numbly, it wasn't better, not really. It was still using her brother and it was strange but it was much better than listening to this...thing, using her brother's voice.

"I needed a body to make the connection to your Torchwood server, there are too many firewalls on it and the normal civic one is not enough to sustain me on its own." It paused and turned to Gwen looking her in the eyes. "He was the best choice as he was the one who tried to a make a connection in the first place. Unfortunately the computer blew out when I was passing through."

"So Ianto wasn't around ever since the incident in the kitchen?" Jack asked. "It has been you all along." Jack stopped for a moment, thinking, he suddenly remembered something. "But why did you stop me in the corridor and insisted that we shouldn't use the laptop if you needed the connection?"

"Because Ianto isn't really gone?" Gwen insisted again.

"He is almost. There might be some of him left, but he is fading faster than I thought. I need to hurry."

"You are not going anywhere!" Jack snarled. "If you need to hurry, then you are fading. Aren't you, you need more hosts."

"Not to worry", the Wire said placidly. "I have already established the connection with most of the servers. And soon we will be more and ready to reach mainframe at your Hub. My fellows are already taking bodies and spreading."

"How?" Gwen sounded shocked.

"Through the internet and then phone calls, people will think they've just got a little electric shock. Just like dear Ianto."

"I'm going to stop you!" Jack spat in venom. "Because, Ianto Jones is the one person you shouldn't have touched if you did not want me as an enemy."

"Oh, but Jack, I have seen inside his mind. Doubts about you, about you caring enough, are all over his head, it's full of them." The Wire taunted. "Do you think he will hang on long enough to hope that you will save him?"

Jack strode with determined, despite the only few steps that separated him from Ianto. His face was now blank and calm, not betraying the anger that was boiling inside him. Gwen knew what it meant when Jack became like this. When she saw him twitch, she knew that he was angry and ready to shoot, but now when he suddenly became that calm, he was way beyond angry and into furious. He wasn't read to shoot he was ready to kill and annihilate.

He leaned close to Ianto and put his hands on the desk behind the chair to which he was tied. His nose almost touched Ianto's, their lips were just a breath away, however, when the words came out, his voice was not a whisper, it came out strong and full of promise.

"I don't believe that. And do you know why?" Jack asked. "Because I know the humans of this century, and do you want to know what I know about them. They are resilient, and just brilliant, and stubborn, and most of all down right argumentative. They don't just give up without a fight and damn well so. Take this lady for example." Jack said and pointed at Gwen. "She is one right stubborn, fight prone and determinate woman, and she is Welsh to boot!"

"Oi!" Gwen shouted frowning.

Jack ignored her and righted himself from his intimidating position. Not that that Wire, whatever it was had looked very intimidated anyway. He put his hands in his pockets hoping that this familiar gesture will help to calm him down and he won't be tempted to hit Ianto anymore.

"And do you know what?' Jack asked, tilting his head up and lifting his chin. They had to give him that, he did look kind of heroic even if it was in the middle of a kind's bedroom surrounded by football and rugby posters. "Ianto is Welsh too. And the Welsh are stubborn as a mule. So I won't be so sure that Ianto has faded away already."

He turned his gaze towards Gwen and looked her straight in the eyes. She could see in his eyes the fact that he had decided what to do and was not going to back away even if this meant heartache or killing him for Ianto's sake. All of a sudden, Jack was once again full with energy and on a motion. He turned towards Rhiannon and locked gaze with her, his face was set and serious. It bore no argument.

"You stay here and make sure he doesn't come off his bonds." Jack instructed Rhiannon.

She was ready to argue, to tell him that he couldn't order her around like this because she wasn't part of his mad, Scooby Doo team. But Gwen interjected once again settling up the situation.

"I'll stay here with her. You do what you need to do." Gwen told Jack putting a reassuring hand on Rhiannon's shoulder.

"Gwen, I need you as a backup!" Jack told her sternly.

"No, Jack, Ianto and his family need me as a support much more." When she said this, her stance was one she would take every time they argued a posture that Jack had dubbed the stubborn ready to fight Gwen. "What are you planning to do anyway?"

Jack shook his head. There was no point of arguing with her when she was convinced that she was doing the right thing. It would just lose them more precious time and she would win in the end anyway.

"Take a good care of him!" Jack instructed her pointing a finger at her. She mock saluted him and then nodded determined. "I'm going up on the roofs and cutting the communication connections of the area. I doubt it that, it had managed to spread too far yet. Despite having Ianto's hacking abilities, Tosh had put too many wards on mainframe. It will have trouble getting pass them."

Ianto snarled at him, barring his teeth, and looking anything but human even in a human's body. When Jack and Gwen looked carefully at their friend, Ianto's eyes had lost their cloudy blue colour and had become all black pits of darkness. Jack was even more determined to do what needed to be done, because they had to hurry, there wasn't time for explanations and emotions. Ianto was losing his grip.

"If you cut the connection and kill me, you will kill this body too," it snarled with a voice that was nothing like Ianto's deep soft Welsh accent. "I am after all the only thing keeping it alive. It is mine now."

Gwen looked shocked at Jack, "Jack, you can't," she pleaded, but it fell on deaf ears.

Jack ignored her and checked that his gun was secure and loaded in its holster. He turned swiftly around, ignoring every pleading gaze and all the words softly spoken to him, or in Gwen's and Rhiannon's case, shouted at him. He sent one last, intent gaze at Ianto. The look was full of promise and care.

"I still need a backup," Jack said and turned to Andy. "You come with me."

Miranda hastily pushed baby Nick in Brenda's arms and jumped up to confront Jack. She strode to him and almost pushed right into his face, looking furious and emphasising her words with wild gestures.

"You can't ask my husband to do this," she shouted at Jack. "We have nothing to do with this madness, don't you get my family involved!"

Andy jumped after Miranda before Jack had had the chance to answer and drag them in the next argument, which could be easily avoided. After all, as it had been already pointed neither Ianto, nor the world had time to be wasted. He took his wife's hands and gave her a light, calming kiss on her head.

"I need to go, love," he said quietly. "It isn't much safer here than out there. Beside if we don't do something it wouldn't matter where we are staying. Other people would get hurt too."

Miranda shook her head in denial, "But, you don't know what to do. This Captain and his girlfriend..."

"Not his girlfriend, I am married. Thank you very much!" Gwen interrupted her.

"Never mind that," Miranda continued, "They are trained, they are used to risk their lives, they know what to do. You don't!"

"That's exactly it, Miranda, they risk their lives constantly so we can keep going on undisturbed and oblivious. It is time we do something ourselves!"

Miranda wanted to argue further, she was even ready to use Nick for her argument, but after opening and closing her mouth a couple of times, she decided that it wasn't worth it. He looked determined, Jack nodded curtly and turned around to the door. In the tiny space of the bedroom the effect of his coat was lost, not having the space for Jack to swirl enough for it to fawn and below. Andy followed him close behind on his heels.

The room fell silent for a few minutes, no one feeling comfortable enough to say a word or daring to look the others in the eyes, even less at Ianto's. With each passing moment the air started to feel more and more oppressed, the silence lay heavy between the occupants. Through the bedroom window came a soft Christmas carol and cheerful voices, which seemed to mock the occupants of the room.

"Mum, are uncle Ianto and Andy, going to die?" David asked innocently.

Rhiannon sat by her son and hugged him tight to her, on her other side Mica snuggled close holding out to her waist. Rhiannon kissed first the top of her son's head, and then her daughter. She didn't understand any of this any more than the rest occupants of the room, but she had to keep calm for the sake of her brother and her children.

"Of course no," she said firmly. "You know your uncle Ianto, he isn't going to just give up."

Gwen sprang to action again at that. This would have been the perfect situation to find something more about her secretive colleague, meeting his family hearing some anecdotes from childhood or school, but it wasn't really, not now.

"Your mum is right." Gwen addressed the children. "We are Torchwood, and I'm not letting anything happen to your uncle."

"Then what is that thing?" Miranda asked. "What does it want to do?"

Gwen threw a quick glance in Ianto's direction, but he seemed preoccupied with something else entirely and no answer was going to come from him, or from the creature that was inside of him. She wasn't sure that he had registered their conversation at all. Whatever it was he was doing she could't see him moving, he was just looking very concentrated.

"It's an alien creature," Gwen answered and waited for the snorts to stop before continuing. She wasn't sure if their reaction was in disbelief or because after Jack's talk with it she was stating the obvious. She suspected it was the latter. "It wants to take over people. So far it had survived only as an electric impulse, with no body and touch, or taste. Now it got Ianto and probably liked the feel of being corporeal." Despite not posing this as a question, she looked at Ianto for confirmation. He did not give any indication that he had heard her. He just kept on staring at nothing, blankly.

Everything seemed to have calmed down comparatively for a moment, with Ianto restrained and away from any internet connection, and Jack who reported to Gwen that he and Andy were already up on the roof. It was a bit concerning that he had managed to access mainframe, but Jack had assured her that Tosh had put sufficient firewalls to hold a sentient virus for a time, even if it wasn't possible to neutralise it without their intervention. She just hoped that it didn't spread around the public networks and that Jack could stop it before it does. It was strange to be so frightened by an enemy they couldn't even see. She was used to the big brutes, metal paper pots and bity things with pointy teeth, but this was so much scarier in some ways.

Before Gwen could notice it, Ianto had moved. She turned around alarmed by the scraping of the chair and saw him standing up. Ianto had freed himself, and no one had noticed, because they got lolled into false security. Brendan and Aldyth had even gone to make more tea and get some cake. She scrambled for the first thing that she could use as a weapon but before she could do anything Ianto had taken by her throat and flung her across the room. Her head connected with the wall, a bad crunch noise came out and she was left lying where she had fallen senseless.

Rhiannon started to shout and demand from her brother to explain what he was doing, but Johnny's hand came across her mouth muffling her words.

"Rhi, please keep quiet," he whispered in her ear. "Didn't you see how he just threw her like a rag doll? What do you think you can do?"

Rhiannon had to concede with his point, because it wasn't as if she would be able to fight him off, and she had to think of her children. But if she didn't…Jack was out there trying to save them all and thinking that he and Andy weren't in danger. She had to at least warn him if not stop her brother.

Ianto was opening the door now, his face still a blank, impassive mask. She had to stop him, Rhiannon knew that she had to act, but before she could do, David crept behind his uncle lifted the lap top up and smashed it down against his back. He wasn't tall enough to hit him on the head, but it was enough to make him shout in surprise and paint and stumble. David just put his foot and caught Ianto in his momentum making him fall down. They knew it wouldn't last long, he wasn't out cold like Gwen, and he was just surprised and a bit pained. Rhiannon jumped and threw the bed sheet over his head, it wasn't a weapon, or some heroic action move, but that was all she could think of at the moment, and it did keep him disorientated for a while.

"Now what?" Johnny asked around the room.

No one answered because Ianto had freed himself from the sheet and was lifting himself up growling with anger. They all backed as far away, as the tiny room would allow them. It was over. They had tried but were not a match for an alien creature or a trained special agent. He stood up on his legs already steady and reached for his gun. The kids whimpered, and Mica hid her face in her mother's skirt, a moment of anticipation and fear passed, nothing happened. Ianto made a low growling noise again; Jack had taken his gun away. They still didn't dare move, because he was advancing on them, and looked quite ready to harm even without the gun. Rhiannon threw an anxious look at Gwen hoping that she would wake up soon, but she was still old cold. Ianto took the chair that he have been tied to and lifted it up. Everyone averted their faces away from Ianto and towards the wall.

Aldyth crashed through the door and brought the full tea tray down on Ianto's head knocking him stone cold.

"I'm afraid we shall not have tea," she said calmly. "I've wanted to do this the whole night."

She looked at him in disdain and took the duct tape out of her pocket. She wasn't going to bother with ropes this time.


	8. Chapter 8

Gwen let out a groan and hissed in pain when she finally woke up. For a moment she wondered if she had been a part of a train wreck, but then her throat remained her of when someone tried to strangle her. She reached behind her head and felt a bump forming on, and something sticky and warm coated around her fingers, probably blood. It wasn't much so she wasn't too concerned with it. She was more concerned with what Ianto might have done while she was out for the count and he was left with a number of defenceless people. She could hear them talking around her and slowly pushed herself up, no point in feeling sick or dizzy by rushing it. She couldn't see Ianto anywhere in the room, but that could mean that he had already gone after Jack.

"Wurgh…" she said. When everyone looked at her strangely, Gwen realised that her head wasn't clean enough to speak. Rhiannon shook her head, and moved from the bed offering Gwen a place to sit. She took it gratefully, took a breath and tried again. "Where's Ianto?"

"In my coats' wardrobe," David answered, pointing at the wall beside the bed which held the wardrobe doors.

Gwen frowned, but then a small smile replaced the frown, "Clever."

"Yes, clever, but this is not helping my brother," Rhiannon said. It might have been a pit petty, but it remained them that the situation was serious and it wasn't a joke.

The air in the room turned heavy again, the lighter mood that David and Gwen had created evaporated after Rhiannon's words. David looked abashed, Gwen a bit guilty but didn't back off.

"I know," she said placidly. She didn't like to patronise the people but she was used to talk carefully with people of the victim's family. It was ingrained as a part of her training in the police force. "But we can't help him anyway, not until Jack fixes this." Maybe not even then if Ianto really is already gone, but she wasn't going to voice these thoughts, because she hasn't given up on Ianto anymore, and she wasn't going to give up on him until it was all over; maybe even then.

Gwen stood up feeling steadier than she had earlier and carefully opened the wardrobe's door to peak in. Ianto was sitting once again tied up to a chair and unconscious. This time duct tape ran all over his body arms and legs, probably making sure that he will not be able to wriggle out so easily. He finally looked a bit dishevelled. Gwen couldn't help but think that Jack would have liked to see him like this. His hair was slightly flat on the top of his head, and when she reached to touch it, it felt sticky with a bit of blood. She felt guilty for hitting him on the head and knocking him out earlier in the night. A darkened patch on the shoulder of his blazer concerned her that the blood hadn't stopped and the head wound was more severe than they had anticipated, but after touching it and giving it a light sniff it revealed the smell of peppermint tea. Reassured that everything was as fine as it could be, she pulled the chair out of the wardrobe.

A low groan caused by the movement escaped Ianto, and despite everything Gwen felt like apologising to Ianto for causing him discomfort. Whatever that thing was doing, Ianto was still her friend and she felt protective over him. She watched as his eyes slowly and painfully cracked open and for one glorious moment they were again the foggy, grey colour of a Walsh morning. At that moment Gwen knew that it was Ianto looking at her, not the creature, and she knew that they haven't lost him completely.

"Ianto…" she whispered, hardly daring to acknowledge his return as if worried that it will mean his disappearance again.

"Gwen?" Ianto said sounding pained and exhausted. "I'm sorry..." he looked at her head and moved as if to reach and touch the place where she had hit it, but his bonds prevented it.

Gwen shook her head, it wasn't the brightest idea as it caused her a bit of vertigo, but she wasn't going to let Ianto blame himself.

"Not your fault," she reassured him brushing her fingers over his cheek.

"I still am sorry," he said, and she could see tears in his eyes, his voice sounded strained as well. "It's getting harder to hold on, I can't control it. I'm sorry, but I don't think I can hold on any more."

"Ianto," Gwen whispered again, but despite the hushed tones of her voice it had edges hard as steel. "What are you talking about, love? I'm not letting you go! You hear me? I'M NOT!"

She gently touched his cheek again and it was wet with tears. It made her want to cry as well, but she pushed it down, crying now wouldn't help Ianto. She was going to stay strong and focused for him. Before he could answer her, the grey of his eyes darkened again and they become black once more. Gwen withdrew her hand and backed away from him. She looked around and saw Rhiannon crying quietly onto Johnny's shoulder, for a moment Gwen felt guilty that she had taken what could be the last moments with her brother from Rhiannon. But she couldn't leave his site when she noticed that Ianto was back even if briefly, she needed to talk to him and reassure him that he will be ok.

"It's starting already," Ianto said cryptically, chuckling. It used Ianto's voice again and it didn't seem to care for the discomfort that it caused the other people in the room. Rhiannon seemed to have been given up the battle about it and just left it use whatever voice it wanted. Gwen felt like screaming, and kicking up a storm.

"What is starting?" she asked instead.

"My spreading around the world," he said calmly.

Jack and Andy were making slow but steady progress around the rooftops. They had already finished with the Davis' household roof and now were making some little progress around the neighbours' rooftops cutting off any system that supported electron media even the land lines. Andy had already cut off the main cables. Jack was using his PDA to block any wireless and mobile connections, but all they could do at the moment is cut off the area and hope that the Wire haven't already managed to spread out of it and around Cardiff.

The slow progress unnerved Jack because they were running out of time, and so was Ianto, what angered him more was that he was powerless to do anything to speed it up. It was winter and the roofs were slippery with frost, and if it was just him, he would have risked it, but he couldn't ask this of Andy. So they proceeded slowly all the while Jack was trying to ignore his worry and irritation. He managed to block the satellite signals in the area for a while but the PDA could only do so much, it didn't have a wild rage and he was too worried to try and access the Mainframe from it. Tosh had put some great firewalls on Mainframe, but none of them was sure how good they would work against an alien sentient virus, beside they haven't been updated for months. Ianto was very good with computer programs, but he wasn't Toshiko. For all Jack knew the Wire could have already infected their alien computer, she was as close to sentient as a server could get, so Jack could only hope that Mainframe could keep it contained within her database.

For now he was going to leave Andy to deal with cutting off the area. He was going to take the SUV and deal with some of the main satellites around Cardiff before he goes back to the Hub and see if he could use Mainframe to cut off all the power of Cardiff until he could deal with the threat.

"Andy," Jack called to his partner by necessity. "You keep trying here, I am going to go and take the SUV."

Andy just nodded, his face illuminated by the light which was reflected from the snow, was pink with the cold. Jack watched as Andy was trying to keep his precarious balance on the ledge of the roof, light mist was escaping from his slightly parted lips. For one heart stopping moment his foot slipped on the frosty tails and Jack was contemplating how he was going to break the bad news to his wife and family, but Andy managed to grab onto a support beam and hold himself there. Letting out a relieved breath, Jack turned around to walk to the SUV.

It was certainly a new experience for Andy walking up on roofs, a lot of lads where he grew up did it once a while, but the thought had never until now crossed his mind. He'd never been one for taking chances with his life, his business, yes, but not with his life. Still here he was now, a normal not risk taking guy, climbing rooftops and trying to save the world in the company of a strange man, from a strange government organisation. And now that man was leaving him alone here to go on a chase of some alien shadow around Cardiff. Despite all that Andy nodded, there wasn't anything much else he could do anyway. Jack was the expert, and Andy had volunteered his help to him.

He had heard the stories which other people told of how just before you are in danger something feels off. Like a feeling of tightening in your gut, like this charged moments in the movies, just before the monster jumps out the corner. The moment in which for apparently no reason you start to feel faint and your heart starts to flutter madly in your chest, all these stories felt so farfetched and fanciful that he had never believed them. Now standing on this rooftop and realising that his foot had just slipped on a particularly frosty patch of it, Andy discovered how true these stories were. For the split seconds he had before the instinctive reaction to reach out and hold onto something, the horror kicked in, he felt all of it. With his heart in his mouth, he reached out desperately scrambling for something to grab onto, his hand reached the support beam on the roof and he help it with a desperate hope. Once he had that anchor it wasn't too hard to push himself up again and get a better grip, he thanked whatever deity was up there that he felt it before it happened and that his other leg was standing stable.

Hefting himself up Andy gave a relieved breath, and waved at Jack to indicate that everything was alright and under control once more. His relieve was short lived. Even before Jack could acknowledge his gesture and nod, a cold hand gripped his throat. He felt the coldness around his throat before the pain of it crushing his windpipe. The breath got caught in his chest and it just wouldn't come in or out again. He crawled desperately at the arm that held him, but it was too weak to have any effect on the person which was chocking the life out of him. His desperate scrambling and scratching managed to loosen the grip of the hand on his throat but wasn't enough to make it let him go.

The respite wasn't long enough. He tried to take in as much of air as he could before the man had cut it out of his airways again. What he managed to breathe in wasn't enough. His head started to feel too heavy for his neck to hold and he laid it numbly on the rooftop, he stared with horror at the face of a normal working class, middle age man. In any other time, the man wouldn't have been out of place in the commune pub with his comfortable overweigh, cheeks slightly rosy from too much wine or beer, and plied shirt tucked into his plain jeans. It was frightening how a man like this, an everyday worker, and probably a nice and quiet father could be chocking someone to death on a rooftop. Andy's world started to dim before his eyes, everything narrowing to a small frame almost a single spot consisting of the man's face and slightly podgy nose. Fear was all he could feel at that moment, the fact that he was dying saving the world didn't make him feel anymore heroic.

It was hard to think past the panic of oh my God, I'm going to die, especially with the buzzing in his ears, but Andy wasn't ready to give up no matter how hopelessly desperate his situation appeared to be. Giving up on the ineffective pulling and scratching, Andy turned his head around and bit down on the soft skin of his assailant's arm. The man momentarily lost concentration, which was exactly what Andy needed to plant his feet against the body on top of him, he kicked off with all the strength that he had left. It wasn't much, but the roof was slippery enough for his light push to send the other man sliding down and falling to the ground below. Andy followed him shortly after. He once again scrambled for a purchase on the supporting beams but this time he could barely keep his hold on it. He could feel his hand slipping and losing his grip, the little stones and pebbles cutting into the skin of his palm. He thought of Nick and Miranda and how he had volunteered to leave them, tempted by the exhilarating world in which Miranda's cousin seemed to live, and not less by the charismatic stranger. He wished that he had more time to say goodbye to them, he didn't regret his decision, although, he had never imagined that he will die a hero, it still beat dying from a heart attack in the office.

He had almost made a peace with his fate when a firm and warm hand took a grip on his arm and tugged at it starting to pull him up. Andy started to struggle for a moment thinking that it was someone else who wanted to kill him but the hand was joined by another one and he was propelled up on the roof by Captain Jack Harkness.

"Thanks mate," Andy said, leaning against the bricks panting.

"No worries," Jack returned, grinning.

Jack's grin was short lived when he looked down to the ground where the man lay unmoving, his head twisted at the neck in an awkward angle. A look of sorrow replaced the grin on Jack's face and Andy decided to brave a few tentative steps towards the edge and look down. The body on the ground almost made him lose his footing again, and the only thing that held him in place was the suddenly too solid and real hand holding him by the sleeve of his parka. His breath once more got caught in his chest as if the hand crushing his windpipe had never let go.

"I didn't mean to," he whispered. "Oh, God, I didn't mean to."

Andy felt Jack pulling him away from the ledge of the rooftop, he felt it and knew it was happening on some basic level that his body had been moved, but his mind didn't register it. All he could do was repeating the same mantra over and over again, "I didn't mean to!"

"It's going to be alright," Jack was saying, giving him empty promises. He could feel Jack rubbing his back.

"No it's not!" The words grated on his throat like sand, all dry and scratchy. "It's really not. A man, someone's father is dead because of me. So don't say it's going to ever be alright again."

Jack slowly pulled away from him and when Andy finally looked at him the expression wasn't one of compassion or sorrow, he could now see the professional soldier usually lurking just beneath the surface of the friendly and exuberant exterior. It was cold, calculating but not cruel, just matter of fact.

"It wasn't your fault, he was possessed," Jack said firmly. "Sitting here and blaming yourself won't help anyone, certainly not your wife's cousin." Jack stood up turning away from him.

For a moment Andy felt hurt thinking that he had disappointed Jack, a moment later he shook his head and wondered why should he care if he had disappointed the strange soldier -wannabe.

"We still have work to do, keep going or more people will die," Jack said again. "I am going back to the SUV now."

"What about the body?"

"Ianto will take care of it."

And that was something that scared Andy more than reassuring him. He had never imagined Ianto as someone who would deal with corpses in a calm and detached way. But before Jack could make another step towards the attic door and out through the house another man came through the trap door and launched himself at Jack, knocking him off his feet and scrabbling with him before the both of them lost their footing on the roof tails and tumbled off the edge.


End file.
